Drugs and Alcohol

Movies

We use movies to open the mind and to see what thoughts are believed in—which ones trigger your emotions—so they can be looked at and consciously released from a fixed position. Doing this brings the mind into a more peaceful state. Watching movies with the intention for healing is a safe way to release pain and fear from your mind. For more about using movies for healing, go to mwge.org.

Flight

To believe you are a success in this world is to be twice removed from reality. To admit that your life is unmanageable, and help from a higher source is needed, is to come one step closer to truth. This is a big wake-up call.

There is a desperate unhappiness beneath the false confidence of personhood. This insecure self is wounded, and to keep this hurt out of awareness, the mask of personal achievement is heavily defended and maintained.

The hiding and pretense is not fooling anyone. However, readiness for healing cannot be forced. The recognition of the need for help comes from within. Once we are open to healing, help comes!

Click here to find trailers for this movie.

When a Man Loves a Woman

Alice Green, a school counselor, is married to Michael, an airline pilot. What appears to be a happy couple who have everything is actually a cover-over for deep desperation and fear. One method of expressing desperation appears to be an addiction to alcohol, yet the call for love takes many forms. Love can only be experienced through honest exposure of what is not love to the light; hidden thoughts of guilt and unworthiness. This movie beautifully lays out a practical demonstration of the movement to expose what is hidden, in order to allow love to bloom fully in awareness. The ego thought of separation would hold onto hidden thoughts in attempt to protect fear-based feelings, whereas the Spirit stands ready to offer peace though the power of forgiveness, as private thoughts are handed over through exposure. Thus, the willingness to expose everything that is believed (no private thoughts), rather than hiding thoughts, is an essential step to freedom and peace of mind. This movie is a helpful example of how partners who serve in purpose are a healing mirror for each other.

Click here to find trailers for this movie.

Questions and Answers with David Hoffmeister

How can one surrender to God?
(from a former drug addict)

Hi David,

Thank you for all you do. I am beginning a treatment program for
chemical dependency. How can one surrender to God? Is it a matter of practice, or is it a matter of simply letting go, which just does not seem to be simple?

Thank you David for any thoughts on the matter.

Namaste

Namaste Beloved,

Thanks for writing and thanks for your devotion to Awakening.

It rapidly becomes apparent that the 'human condition' was one of ego dependency. Ego thoughts can but seem to veil the truth of One
Self. Our Christ Self is untouched by illusion. You wrote: "I almost feel like my God concept is now far too complicated an idea to trust, and everything I have ever believed, I feel like I must let go." You are right on, for holding in awareness any concept, including a ‘God concept’, with the exception of complete forgiveness—the final concept, is a block to true release.

How can one surrender to God? How is forgiveness accepted? These are the same question, and the Answer is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a decision and all that is asked of you is willingness to decide for God. Each moment you do this is a miracle. And with total willingness the need for time and miracles is over. Application of ACIM, with willingness not to make exceptions to the Workbook Lessons, is what you might call practice. And each moment, if accepted for the Holy Spirit's Purpose, is a full opportunity for simply letting go. I am joined with you in this Purpose and we cannot fail. For God's Will is done. Nothing can change eternal Love.

With each willing moment a momentum seems to grow, and a confidence and certainty about the Holy Spirit's Guidance seems to grow as well. This momentum is like a tidal wave of Love. And as the last sands of ego are washed away, it is obvious that Love is all there is. The belief in opposites has been undone! Be open to this happy and true thought with each step you are Guided to take on the road to Recovery or Recognition of Spirit.

It has been said: "let go, and let God," and this is sound advice. Leave the how to the Holy Spirit, for means and ends are one to Him. Only be willing. More you cannot do. The rest will be given you.

I Love You!

David

How to respond to my drunk, madman husband?

David,

So, when I see my husband getting drunk and behaving like a raving madman it's not real? It's only an image? What is the best response?

Hello Beloved One,

What you describe is a call for love. The ego sees attack, for that is what the ego is. The Spirit within sees everything as either a call for love or love expressing. If you align with the Spirit you will extend love and sanity when you perceive a call for love, and thus experience that you have love and are love. By giving love in all circumstances it becomes clear that love is "Who I am" and that love is without limit. See the call for love and you extend sanity and feel sane and at peace. See attack and you will be defensive and feel insane yourself. As you stay focused on what you want to experience—Love, you will see witnesses to your desire, for love. That is saying that what you sow (thoughts in mind) is what you reap (perceptions), for the world but witnesses to our inner state of mind. A happy dream of non-judgment and acceptance precedes a gentle Waking from the dream of the world. Divine Love is no illusion, yet anything that seems to cover over Love in awareness must be released or forgiven.

Blessings always,

David

How can I help my drug-addicted
son without enabling him?

My precious son is an alcoholic and drug addict. He is a very spiritual man but just doesn't seem to be able to find his way out of this addiction.

Two years ago he overdosed deliberately and was in a coma for a week. The doctors told us he had very little chance of survival. He was back at work two months later. Miracles are so wonderful to experience and we've experienced many. Without ACIM I would have been a basket case. He's been in treatment centers 3 times, been in and out of AA, and has seen a counselor. Now he feels that "everyone is fed up" with him. I try very hard not to enable him, but when I feel his pain, all I can do is come here and let him know that my love for him is unconditional. Now I let the Holy Spirit guide me as much as possible.

If you have time, I would love to hear from you.

Greetings Beloved One,

Thanks for writing and opening to the Holy Spirit to unburden your
mind. You have seen the Call for Love in your son and have allowed the Holy Spirit to Answer in Love. Now you are ready to see that the Call for Love is always one's own Call to release all little concepts and tiny, mad beliefs and accept the Atonement or Correction of the Holy Spirit. The one ‘addiction’ of the mind asleep and dreaming is judgment, and this stems from the belief in private minds with private thoughts. Judgment is an ego device for ordering illusions to bring a sense of calm to what seems to be chaos. Your encounters with your son have offered the ongoing opportunity to release the sense of personal responsibility you feel toward him. The ego made the roles of wife and mother and child to contain What cannot BE contained. They are but concepts, garments made to cloak the belief in private thoughts and private minds. The responsibility to be accepted is for the state of mind God Wills for You as the Christ: Peace.

Pain, no matter what the form, no matter if it seems physical or psychological, no matter if it seems here or there, is always a wrong-minded perception. Pain is the misperception that comes from the belief in private thoughts with private minds. Pain is the belief that One Mind can be broken apart and divided into pieces.

True empathy comes from aligning with the Holy Spirit and seeing the impossibility of separation, of judgment, of sickness. It is humility to accept the wholeness of mind which reflects the Oneness of God's Mind. What is the same cannot be different, and what is one cannot have separate parts. The simple logic of the Holy Spirit is as follows: If God is real there is no pain, and if pain is real there is no God. Forgiveness returns the awareness of wholeness to the mind which, for an instant, seemed to doubt. Atonement is the Correction to the struggle of false identification with the ego, and as you shared: "all struggle is the attempt to deny One's True Identity as Christ."

Blessings,
David

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