Once again-- a synopsis from my friend Karl Vidt,
an awesome ACIM teacher. A great conversation starter.

As we gaze at the two pictures in front of us, trying
to decide what to look at, we find we can't look at
both at the same time. The pictures represent our
thought systems, the way we think. When we allowed
the thought of separation to settle itself in our
minds, we began to think apart from God. We never
actually separated from God because that is
impossible. God doesn't create by separation, only by
extension. So we, in our minds, thought ourselves
separate. It is an insane thought, and all we do to
preserve that thought of separation is therefore
insane, or based in insanity. No wonder life so often
seems insane.

However, no matter how far down that
thought road we travel towards thinking ourselves
separate we go, we can never completely sever
ourselves from what we really are, One with God. God
gave us the Holy Spirit to hold that Oneness for us,
always keeping it near us and reminding us of it every
so often, every opportunity it gets. The holy
instants are the moments of remembering who we are.

Our awareness shifts, if only for an instant, and we
feel the peace, love and joy of God welling up within
us. The Holy Spirit also holds our relationships with
each other as holy. In our effort to reinforce and
defend our thought of separateness, we redefine our
relationships to support our "insane" idea that we are
separate. We expect others to make us happy, to bring
peace or to bring love into our lives from a source
other than God. In this way we make our relationships
"special", piling unreasonable thoughts and
expectations upon them, and when they don't live up to
our expectations, we are certain to blame them.

Our way out of all this is to change our thoughts, change
our thought system. When we allow the Holy Spirit to
guide our thoughts, we find an amazing change in the
way we view the world and our life experiences. We
find ourselves filled with love, peace and joy. And
we find that the world looks very different to us,
also filled with peace, love and joy. So when we
allow the Holy Spirit to guide us to Truth, we will
see what is real and what is illusion. We with know
exactly where to look and see clearly which picture is
real.

... Learning and practicing the principles and lessons of
the Course will help us shift our perception so we can
let go of the ideas and thoughts that keep us from the
awareness of our true selves. Join us as we learn to
be the people and community we know we really are.