Thoughts on “What is the Holy Spirit?” in the ACIM Workbook
(Full text of “What is the Holy Spirit” in the workbook)
The holy spirit is in the mind. It is a name that is often used in combination with the father and the son. The phrase “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” is synonymous with Source, Creation, and Mind.
The Mind is the interface, the intermediary, between on the one hand Source and Its abstract qualities and ideas, and on the other hand the concrete extension in for instance the 3D realm that you are so familiar with.
Think of a tree. The idea of a tree is Source. The extension is Creation. The idea of life-giving sap that runs up and down the trunk and the branches is the Mind.
Why is it called “the Holy Spirit”? The word holy is indicative of Purity, which relates to the Mind’s faithful and pure transmission of creative qualities into extension, as well as to the relaying of Joy and Gratitude back to Source. The word Spirit is indicative of the light, ethereal, breath-like quality of the Mind’s dynamic.
The Holy Spirit is the communication channel between Source and Creation, between Source and Its extension.
The creative expression that you call “a person” has been given the ability to direct the focus of the mind at will towards any and all patterns within the creative stream. This is man’s free will. The reason this ability was given is that it greatly enhances creative expansion, since a free focus will make new connections and will explore new ideas. If the Mind is only focused on one given pattern within the creative stream, changes, variations and expansions are not likely to occur.
This freedom has within it the possibility of focusing attention away from the stream. A sustained wayward focus on the part of part of a person’s mind may cause them to temporarily forget the creative stream that it is a part of and to attach their sense of self to the object of their focus: a given form in expression. This is what is often called “the fall”. Since this limited notion of self does not rhyme with a person’s true nature, it will give rise to anxiety and fear.
Now the mind is given anxiety and fear to build with, building blocks that are totally alien to what it was made to handle. However, it will dutifully project what it is given into images in the world that overlay Creation. These serve as feedback to the person to inform them of their wayward focus.
The Holy Spirit, the mediating part of the mind, has not gone anywhere, It is still pulsating up and down: from Source to Creation and back. Its dynamic, so very much a part of each and every creative extension, keeps on keeping on.
Its clarity and luminescence will attract a person’s attention whenever their focus wanders in the vicinity of the creative stream. Then doubt about their wayward focus will set in and that will be the start of them turning their focus around. The person will start to allow their burdened Mind to be liberated by releasing one misunderstanding after the other. They will be experiencing their will, now free from coercive patterns, and free to move about in the stream of creative principles emanating from Source and in harmony with it, using their Mind for its appointed purpose.