Thoughts on “What is the Holy Spirit?” in the ACIM Workbook
(Full text of “What is the Holy Spirit” in the workbook)
Ah! The holy spirit is 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 expression in for instance the 3D realm that you are so familiar with.
Think of a tree. The idea of a tree is source; the expression, the physical structure, is creation; the 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 expression, as well as to the relaying of feedback back to source, namely the experience expressions have while expressing. The word spirit is indicative of the light, ethereal, breath-like quality of the mind’s dynamic.
The mind is the communication channel between source and expression/creation.
The creative expression that you call “man” 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. With a mind purely focused, like the rest of nature, on one pattern within the creative stream, any changes, variations and expansions are not as likely to occur. This extra freedom has within it the possibility of focusing attention away from the stream. A sustained wayward focus may cause a person 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 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. The mind is now given anxiety and fear to build with, building blocks that are totally alien to what it was made to handle, but 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 pure mediating 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 expression, 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 their turning their focus around. The person will start to liberate their burdened mind 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.