Miracles in Manhattan

...So I fire back: You're always on my mind. Love, the World-Eater

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News!

See episode description for this week's rundown, but some news about what's to come for MiM is as follows:

• This last episode we recorded some time ago.
• Starting next drop, we'll brbringing you fresh content, taking questions, and keeping a rad schedule with lots of bonus content.
• What KIND of bonus content? Here's a hint: Stephanie's psychic and it's the spookiest month of the year.
• We have transcripts being migrated to the homepage. In a weird move, we're going to post this weeks at the very bottom of the notes to see what happens.

Buckle up and subscribe so you don't miss a thing!

On with the show...

This week, the Miracles in Manhattan Podcast talks about the weird things you've been thinking and what the rest of the world thinks about you, We also get into what it means to be single, and, in the offing, Lesson 11 of A Course in Miracles. Things get wavy.

Talking points:

• Your hosts set up a mental chessboard. And then call it a day.
• Marco is at a loss for any real expertise. And the word, "oxytocin"
• Are you single, coupled, partnered, avaible or a quantum field? Tell us in an email!
• What are you REALLY doing at Trader Joe's?
• Lots of talk about Zen…An A for effort is awarded
• Spoiler Alert! [The world is not meaningless]
• We're taking life-questions. Email us!

[email protected]

Find more content at miraclesinmanhattan.com

@Wildmanhattan (t) | #Podernfamily

Themes: Advice, ACIM, A Course in Miracles, True Crimes, Comedy, Pain, Politics, The Present, Love, Dating, Race, BDSM, The body, Spirit, Self-help, Spirituality, Zen, http://twitter.com/WildManhattan

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Transcript

ARE YOU SINGLE? OR, SPOILER ALERT: THE WORLD ISN'T REALLY MEANINGLESS

The Miracles in Manhattan Podcast (A Course In Miracles (ACIM), Lesson 11)

Marco Maisto [00:00:00] That's right. But oh we should also tell people hey guys and gals we have an email address now. Yes we do. And why do we have an e-mail address Steph?

Stephanie Wild [00:00:11]So that you can e-mail us questions with questions.

Marco Maisto [00:00:13] We're taking questions.

Marco Maisto [00:00:16] We are going to answer your questions in as apt a fashion as we answer one another's here on these yes miracles in Manhattan.

Stephanie Wild [00:00:25]Gmail dot com. Easy to remember. Yeah. All you have to do is remember the name of the podcast and then Gee Mary popular. Who called Product miracles in Manhattan at G.M. dot com so just remember that. Well we'll point you in the right direction.

[00:00:40] Yeah and yeah Friels do to please e-mail questions and don't feel like they need to be totally pertinent to the episode you just listened to. No no no I need any any of you any lesson yet.

[00:00:58] My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world.

[00:01:23] Welcome to today's edition of miracles in Manhattan the only show in which two spiritual delinquents start over.

[00:01:32] Welcome to miracles in Manhattan where two spiritual delinquents lead you through a Course in Miracles trying to wake up in the city that never sleeps.

[00:01:44] I am Reverend Stephanie Wilde and I am Marco. Mr. poet single guy.

[00:01:55] Sorry you'd have to listen to him another time. Yes. No I'm not.

[00:02:00] I don't know if I'm single I'm Venables With the death. I think it's like well I'm seeing I'm dating. The Lenny Kravitz guy you right. Right. But I'm also. No I think that's means that single. Yeah. Hey I'm not hooked up with a partnership.

[00:02:16] Let's let's you know how we can find out the end to that if you know the answer to this question. Email us at miracles and man and G.M. dot com because we are taking questions and airing them in and talking about them on the air and we would really love to hear from you. But yeah you know if you're single and seeing another person is also seeing other people are you single or are you What did you see available available.

[00:02:41] OK. Yeah. I mean you know maybe you know you could you know what. I think you could be married. That's not single but also available because you got a partnership with someone but you're also available whereas I don't have a partnership. You know I don't have a life right entwined. I would feel kind of easy asking a woman if she's available. That sound kind of easy. I mean you just have to assume she's available if she's on a date. Yes this is the word.

[00:03:10] Yeah. I saw an ad moving English moving and they used the word free. You know you free.

[00:03:17] Boy. That's yeah. There's a lot of confusion what happened. Well it had to be in context just like you walking around saying Are you free. Yeah yeah. But it was you know it was if you were sort of I'll try that next time at Whole Foods get you free. Are you free. I had to pay for the tomatoes and now expensive. And yes I said tomatoes. All right.

[00:03:39] So lesson eleven goes like this my meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world.

[00:03:45] Now this is interesting lesson because it's on page 18 of the workbook for students and on at the end of the first paragraph it says the key to forgiveness lies in it.

[00:04:00] So this is the first time. If I'm not mistaken that the course talks about forgiveness.

[00:04:10] And so you don't have to say that you're the author of a book called The Art of forgiveness which is quite good thinking forgive the process of forgiveness is the miracle that A Course in Miracles talks about it's dissolving illusion.

[00:04:26] So this is this is a this is a big this is a big lesson today because it's it really it starts to get to the heart of the matter.

[00:04:34] So this is how we do lesson eleven the exercise of lesson eleven for maximum benefit. The eyes should Wait no let me go back. We need to. With our eyes closed first repeat the idea slowly to ourselves. My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world. Then open your eyes and look around from one thing to another fairly rapidly without lingering on anything in particular.

[00:05:14] It should just be done as casually as possible.

[00:05:20] That's it. And you keep repeating the idea.

[00:05:25] And it says he had three practice periods will be sufficient for the day. But you can do as many as five. But more than this is not recommended.

[00:05:35] So it's a pretty straightforward exercise compared to Lesson 10 which had like a few was almost like a little set of mantras. But lesson 11 is just close your eyes my meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world.

[00:05:49] Open your eyes move you move your eyes let them rest on this that and the other but nothing in particular in casual unhurried leisurely way and then repeat repeat the idea once more my meaningless thoughts are showing the meaningless world.

[00:06:07] It says here that this contains the foundation for the peace relaxation and freedom from worry that we are trying to achieve.

[00:06:18] Right. Okay so this extends as men correct me please if I'm wrong. This is how I understand it. This extends on less than 10 which establishes that my thoughts are meaningless. Correct. This goes on to say that so is the world around correct me because we've already been introduced to the idea that our thoughts have determined the world.

[00:06:45] Right. Right. Thought from the past we're projecting our thoughts perceptions wishes expectations on the world. But if my thoughts are meaningless then the world that I'm seeing is meaningless.

[00:06:57] Yeah in a way this is saying by practicing less than 10. You're not just pretending you're not just pretending that that things around you have no meaning they don't correct.

[00:07:07] Absolutely correct that's absolutely correct. Absolutely correct. And you know more will be revealed.

[00:07:15] Like spoiler the world's not really meaningless. But at this point in our cause. Yeah. My thoughts are meaningless. So the world that I'm perceiving is meaningless. But we just don't want to get ahead of ourselves. We just practice each step like a brick in the foundation.

[00:07:40] That was actually the first time that I put two and two together I think some of these were at least two lessons really mutually reinforcing to make sense that ten is more complicated than 11 11 is basically saying you're not out of your fucking mind.

[00:07:57] Yeah you've just been mis perceiving things you've been believing is meaning outside of yourself and there's not it's just your thoughts giving you meaning.

[00:08:08] I'm going to bullet point this book did look at hand look look at me.

[00:08:12] I understand. Hey.

[00:08:15] So no this the question I have that maybe people who were listening might also and this probably explained in the texts. Forgive me if it's repetitive but no no. It's what we hear. Yeah. So lesson 10. Every lesson tells you to do exercises of some kind. Yeah. Nothing hard. Nothing. No. Just a few minutes a day. My question is this is it that on Monday I do the things you talked about in less than 10 and move on leave those behind me. And on Tuesday I I I go on to lesson eleven or two I stick with one lesson and continually practice that before I move on.

[00:08:58] No no you just do it one after the other after the other.

[00:09:01] Yeah. Really. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. One a day. Okay. Mm hmm. Cool. Yeah.

[00:09:09] I mean I suppose you could do it for a couple of days. But but but no more. It's definitely not a week or a month or anything like.

[00:09:18] Graduating from one to the other sort of thing you should do them in order. No no no no that's not what I mean by country. You shouldn't feel as if you have to have mastered one to move.

[00:09:29] No I know you just practicing saying things in a in a different way but I mean if you get rusty or you have a big break or something yeah then you might want to go back then. But I know it's not supposed to be arduous at all right. For the perfectionist in the audience. Yeah. No.

[00:09:44] No. OK. Let's get the three. Wow. That makes cool. Yeah.

[00:09:51] OK so what the hell. Into my hair meanings thoughts meaningless world.

[00:10:01] I mean I'll jump right. So yeah the first thing that comes to mind is you know kind of meaningless when you hear. No it's it's happening is semiotics is.

[00:10:15] Is that you know there is not a natural connection between things and the words that we have for them. Oh. However when I look around this room a lot of the time not all of the time I look at an object and the word for that object dimly pops into the back of my head. Sure. Right. And so that is something seems to me this lesson is trying to nudge you away from doing maybe I don't know or or at least maybe nudge you away from any sort of emotional and experience all attachments that you might have. Yes.

[00:10:53] Which is why I don't feel like my you know like.

[00:10:58] Yeah yeah yeah. And yes that's right. And I think you pointing out that what I think you really pointed out is that the word does not equal the object.

[00:11:07] I mean it's just a tag we put on it and that's what's so cool about letting you know the language you see how the tags for things relate to what one another differently. So it's not that there's an absolute. Meaning for each object we just given them tags.

[00:11:26] Yeah and but and in tags can also be even more sort of complicated and all logically or emotionally whereas if I have four photographs on my wall in a row I might look at them and say photograph photograph photograph photograph. But if one of them is of my God forbid dead Mom. That third one is going to stumble on that one not just it's not just going to be a photo. It's going to be my mom. Yeah. So are we asking people in this lesson to to not have feelings about that third photograph.

[00:12:06] No that's not what we're asking. We're asking people to realize that our thoughts are giving meaning to the photograph.

[00:12:16] Q Yeah you're giving me this look that you sometimes do where you are.

[00:12:22] To me it communicates. Are you challenging me. Is that rhetorical.

[00:12:27] When I ask snow I will question your projecting that you will thinking that but I'm not thinking that I'm thinking I'm I'm.

[00:12:38] My eyes are resting on you but I'm thinking about my words carefully so I don't get it wrong. I did it. It's like chess cool.

[00:12:51] Well said all right. Yeah. The last time we spoke I asked you what.

[00:13:03] Sort of change. Not necessarily benefit but what change one might expect or even look for after practicing a lesson like this. I don't know if that's a useful question to ask. And so we can have a why not. I mean but a lawyer. What are your thoughts on that.

[00:13:19] Well this lesson I think is really getting us to. To the point where we can really separate the like entity that our thoughts create from the reality of the world.

[00:13:42] Now we haven't seen the reality of the world yet according to A Course in Miracles. But my meaningless thought showing me a meaningless world. The thoughts make a world and none of that is real. So I think if we can sort of conceptualize the thoughts and the world they make is like a bowl and we can just set that aside.

[00:14:01] We used to think that was reality and it meant everything. But at this point we should be I think at the point where we can say oh yeah that's just ephemeral all these thoughts created this world created this experience created my whole life.

[00:14:16] Let me just set that aside and see what's really there.

[00:14:22] All right.

[00:14:29] This makes sense does make sense. And again you know once again it feels like a one to one correspondence. Don't meet with a lot of Zen that I've been exposed to. You'd hear this kind of spoken about in terms of falseness versus form and tell us more about just that. That that boy I'm going to get this really well.

[00:14:50] But that's okay. You know if we get it wrong because we're just people trying to get happy and so I'm also a person trying to remember.

[00:14:58] But yes and get happy in doing that. But that that that that that that that that objects or things are really no more than forms and in form is itself formless ness so that there is there isn't again no inherent meaning in any thing. Now that doesn't mean that like as a Buddhist I have no respect for something in life you know quite the opposite. Yes. In fact diametrically the opposite. But mental formations I have thoughts or blocks and things like that. These are not external externally provided from the universe to me or settlement. I'm not beset by them right. They're products of an untested mind. Yep. Yeah. I think a lot of misconception that I had and I know a lot of people have about you know meditation in the world that Zen is that you are you. You're sitting hard and concentrating hard on not having any thoughts. And if you think about it. That act is itself. A thought form. And so.

[00:16:18] Yeah. No that's not. We can't not have thoughts but we just recognize them for what they are.

[00:16:23] Right. Yeah right. That that procession of objects moving by as it's very very very lustrous.

[00:16:29] It's kind of cool it's not just a parade of like stuff going back end.

[00:16:35] Yeah yeah. I told you about this analogy this guy is Zen guy told me about with a mirror. Yeah. Yeah. Another mentioned I guess I'll say it again. But you know you can sort of in terms. Right. So this this has to do with me. So in Zen this might have to do a lot with detachment or unattached on attaching oneself from things. So imagining a mirror passing by on a conveyor belt even like by your face. There's a moment where your face disappears because the mirror has passed you you have a choice at that moment to follow the mirror and keep seeing yourself or let it go and you have that choice with every thought my mental formation that happens and emotionally to you.

[00:17:19] Absolutely and the way I talk about it with this client is. Detaching our our happiness from things that happened detaching our happiness from thoughts you know. So that we're not. Our happiness is not being controlled by external things. Okay. How. So where does happiness come from if it comes from source. God if you want to call it that infinite intelligence the true love which is the stuff of the universe it comes from a higher power. It's spirit.

[00:17:50] Spiritual. Okay.

[00:17:54] Let let's be nitty gritty for a minute. Oh yeah that's Yeah. So. Is that to say in the world of course in miracles. Is that to say that. Me thinking of somebody and as a result feeling happy is an illusory and sort of dangerous thing.

[00:18:20] I don't think it's dangerous at all. It's a mystery. If if you're not if you're not aware that you're in control of it.

[00:18:31] Because I can think of someone and feel in love and being in love is a state of consciousness and I and I'm in love with two people right now and I can think of either one of them and just so much fun it's lovely. But but I know that it's a state of consciousness and it's not anything that I can't control. You know it's not. I'm not beholden. My happiness is not dependent on them. It's not dependent on what they do right. But I can enjoy that feeling I can enjoy those thoughts but not be controlled by it.

[00:19:13] Does it does it. Do you feel that it sort of cheapens that feeling. No no no absolutely not the way that sometimes when you hear you know kind of like you know really watered down like neurobiologist about love it's chemicals and shit like that you know the sort of stuff that you hear.

[00:19:36] No I mean it's I think it's chemicals plus consciousness right.

[00:19:42] Yeah I'm saying what I guess what I'm saying is when I hear that sort of stuff and I know yes I get it I get it you know there are chemicals that make you feel good. Yeah. But somebody is saying that in order to sort of again like cheapen or cheapen might not be the right word but to sort of dissociate the experience from from the experience that I want it to be or or believe it to be.

[00:20:09] Yeah. No I understand that.

[00:20:12] That can engender fear and anger because underneath anger is fear because I think you know where we are at less than a living because all of a sudden everything seems meaningless. Right. It's not you know.

[00:20:25] Right but but it doesn't mean that I'm going to treat the other person as disposable. I'm going to treat them as as a child of God. I'm going to treat them as as equal and as valuable as I am and with a great deal of respect.

[00:20:42] Right. Right. Do you have to see them as a child of God.

[00:20:49] In order to what.

[00:20:52] Do that do you. Yeah I think so. Okay. I think so. And that's why spiritualism appealed to me because that's how I was seeing people and when I found the religion that's what they said we are each a spirit in a body we're absolutely equal right. We're absolutely as valuable as each other and we are like drops of water in the ocean we're part of this consciousness we're part of infinite intelligence we're part of source quantum field if you want whatever you want.

[00:21:18] Now China this why this is kind of the perfect body cast because at this point this is like a point where this sort of sub dialogue that you and I have about like comparing this to the Zen stuff parts ways a little parts ways I think because they're there is because I'm not even going to try to speak and articulate you know like a Zen Buddhist view of deity after life soul of spirit anything. But it's it's definitely much more downplayed. Yes that all realize that. But in in a way that that I've experienced very positively. And I have to come back in future episodes with more thinking on that but I don't mean to say it parts ways completely but I will say that our atheist listeners should stick with this podcast.

[00:22:11] Yeah well I mean and that's why no one path is better than the other. I mean there are as many paths to happiness peace enlightenment or whatever you want to call it as there are people and you find the one that is best for your personality you find the one that's best for you as you are right now on Earth and they all lead to the same place so that you catch you catch him.

[00:22:39] Yeah all right.

[00:22:41] Okay well no I think any sort of summary or in any kind of parting thoughts on lesson eleven from you Steph. No no. I think we did well here I think I'm good. It's good. Yeah I think we did well it feels like a very functional and reinforcing and not a maintenance can step at a step that yeah that you need because you can't have ten without this. Yeah. Who are your your little maybe two something like that. Yeah.

[00:23:10] Listen I stick with it because again. Yeah. Spoiler alert the world is not meaningless.

[00:23:16] Spoiler alert I'm looking at Stephanie's copy of this book which lives at my house for her convenience.

[00:23:26] It's highly marked up there are posted at the end so that tells me so. And then should you as well. Yeah.

[00:23:38] All right so we'll see next time. Oh yeah. In the meantime miracles in Manhattan at G.M. dot com.

[00:23:43] Yeah. And I'm just saying that now we know where we're a little young in this podcast.

[00:23:47] Still this is this will be the 11th of 12 episode that you will be listening to and we're figuring out if this is going to be a weekly or bi weekly drop and soon we'll find out. So just yeah levitation if you can with us as we work that out because we have to do over 350 so. Okay. But my God we're gonna be happy at the end of it we'll be different.

[00:24:18] Beautiful people. Thank you so much for listening. Have a good week or two days.

[00:24:24] Bye bye.

In comics,The Ultimate Nullifier is a tiny, complex, even mysterious device that, when used as a weapon, more or less erases its user, their target, and the planet they both occupy. Today, I received the picture-postcard you sent me, the one with "Thinking of you!" scrawled on the back, as if to teach me that in real life, destroying two people and a reality requires only simple - even conventional - measures.

This week, the Miracles in Manhattan Podcast talks about Lesson 10 of A Course in Miracles...and other matters. Things get funny. Talking points include:

• A pretty-good AI, or: WE HAVE TRANSCRIPTS!!!
• 2019 resolution: podcast from the astral plane
• Experience = perception - thoughts. (And other basic maths)
• Pablo Picasso was never called an a$$h0l3. Not in New York
• Marco shows that talking about Zen - isn't very
• "Hi! Nothing means anything to me!" (A MiM-approved first-date convo starter.)
• Steph talks to dead people, but doesn't laugh
• The Mountain Goats. The Orpheus Protocol. Let's tangent.
• We're taking life-questions. Email us! [email protected]

(Usual MiM suspects also appear: advice, ACIM, A Course in Miracles, true crimes, true mind, comedy, pain, The Present, Love, Dating, Race, BDSM, the body, Spirit, Self-help, Spirituality)

Find more content at miraclesinmanhattan.com | @Wildmanhattan (t) | #Podernfamily

TRANSCRIPT:

In praise of meaningless thoughts. ACIM. Miracles in Manhattan. Marco Maisto and Rev. Stephanie Wild. Produced by Wild Stories and Rogue Signal Studios, NYC.

Marco: [00:00:06] Summer has broken its chokehold. Sometimes highs are in the 70s. It's back to school season.

[00:00:17] It's lovely day to be in New York City.

[00:00:23] Welcome to Miracles in Manhattan.

[00:00:31] My thoughts do not mean anything. It's going to be a lot easier to podcast on the astral plane because I have to say when we get there. Yeah. Because all we have to do is think stuff. Yes. And then everyone knows it.

Marco: [00:00:51] Hi and welcome back to Miracles in Manhattan. The show where two spiritual delinquents lead you through a course in miracles trying to wake up in the city that never sleeps. I'm Marco here with my good friend, the Reverend Stephanie Wild. How are you and the upgrade?

Stephanie: [00:01:09] I am absolutely great today. Thank you. Beautiful weather. I will.

Stephanie: [00:01:15] I did a lot of walking through the city. It's just been so nice. The leaves are changing. Gorgeous.

[00:01:25] Get to watch me plug in plugs for two hour hour and. It might have been my story. Let's let's split the difference at three.

Stephanie: [00:01:33] Sure. Cool. But you know what? It doesn't matter. Doesn't matter because all is good. I just looked around the room and.

Stephanie: [00:01:43] Realize that there's a market don't mean anything. Yes. Oh, OK. That's part of the gig. People know what they're in for. It's so funny. You notice those things. I just don't ever notice them.

Marco: [00:01:56] I loved it. I noticed them on behalf of the listener.

Stephanie: [00:01:59] Yeah, well, that's part of your job. I guess a part of my job is not denied. So, yes, I have a trick like when I'm meditating and something like that happens.

[00:02:13] I've trained my subconscious mind to use that as a signal to go deeper into meditation.

[00:02:18] It's interesting when I'm in a meditative state, that sort of thing doesn't bother me the way it does no better. But I haven't done what you just said. That's interesting. Mm hmm. Yeah, it's going to be a lot easier to podcast on the astral plane is all I have to say when we get there.

Stephanie: [00:02:35] Yeah. Because all we have to do is think stuff.

Stephanie: [00:02:39] Yes. And then everyone knows it.

Marco: [00:02:43] Exactly. Throw away your iPhone. Cool. All right. So we're gonna want to take a shot, I believe. Let's turn.

Stephanie: [00:02:52] Yeah. Let's try this in ten. So. So listen, ten is. My thoughts do not mean anything. So if you if you remember a little while ago we did. Lesson 4 and lesson 4 was these thoughts do not mean anything. So now we're taking it a little further and linking the idea to ourselves our own thoughts. And if you remember also lesson eight, because we're slowly building right step by step. So if you meant the lesson eight, it says, my mind is preoccupied with past thoughts and we've learned that. Our thoughts are all about the past.

Marco: [00:03:48] So if our thoughts are all about the past, then they can't be true because right now we're in this present moment.

Stephanie: [00:04:01] And we're just reinforcing that, we're just reinforcing that, except we're applying it to our own thoughts and less than 10. Again, my thoughts did not mean anything.

Marco: [00:04:16] Let me ask you a clarifying question. What you just said is that to say that that a preoccupation with think with thoughts written in the past is in itself meaningless.

Stephanie: [00:04:29] Or counterproductive.

Stephanie: [00:04:34] Preoccupation. Yes. Right. Okay. Yes. OK. So it says here in lesson 10. That we are emphasizing that the presence of thoughts means that we are not, in fact thinking this is merely another way of repeating our earlier statement that our mind is really a blank. So that's true mind. It's a blank, right?

Stephanie: [00:05:10] Which means we if it's a blank when it's blank. We are experiencing the present moment and that is reality. But when we're thinking we're living in the past and that is not reality.

Stephanie: [00:05:27] That's all it is. OK. That's all it is.

Marco: [00:05:32] That seems to put a lot a heavy burden on perception and doesn't it? If the.

Stephanie: [00:05:38] That's right. We're dismantling perceptions. Perception is not reality. Right. True perception.

Stephanie: [00:05:47] I mean, yeah, he's is, but thought it's not a true perception, right? Yeah.

Marco: [00:05:56] Somebody who is a in the art world kind of told me something maybe relative relevant to that. If you look at kind of mid to later Picasso portraits, you'll notice that as soon as he gets away from kind of a realistic style. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. The first thing that happens is that the eyes go sideways. That's the no. They're on the same plane.

Stephanie: [00:06:22] Like to me, The Philistine: "Yeah. The eyes go sideways, dude!" Yeah. They look weird, right? Yeah.

Marco: [00:06:29] I guess according to this person that was sort of his engagement with with with truly perceiving without thinking about the subject Lou.

Stephanie: [00:06:40] Oh OK. Yeah.

Marco: [00:06:41] Later to be taken up by Kandinsky in point. Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. I just said so many things that we @ me.

Stephanie: [00:06:50] Please don't ask me for any of that. No, we're just a couple of spiritual delinquents, which is a couple of people just sort of bumbling around in a net.

Stephanie: [00:06:58] That helps me actually. Yeah. Yeah. No wonder I like Picasso so much though, that era. Well whatever period. Isn't that the proper word. Yeah.

Stephanie: [00:07:08] Yeah. Cool. All right. Well, let me let me describe the exercise and then we can talk some more. So this is the way we do this exercise.

Stephanie: [00:07:19] We close our eyes and we repeat the lesson. My thoughts do not mean anything. And then we add this idea will help to release me from all that I now believe. We search our mind for all the thoughts that are available to us without selecting any specific ones or judging them or classifying them.

[00:07:44] It says here, and I think this is a useful tip we can imagine that we're watching and oddly assorted procession going by, which has little, if any, personal meaning to you. So as each thought crosses our mind, we say my thought about this doesn't mean anything. I thought about that doesn't mean anything. And repeat, this idea will help to release me from all that I now believe. So there's a few things it sort of almost like a little set of mantras or something.

Marco: [00:08:17] Mm hmm.

Stephanie: [00:08:19] And it says here that where to do this five times a day for no more than a minute each and we can do it for less time if we experience discomfort.

[00:08:30] Right.

[00:08:32] Would you recommend somebody do that exercise? Indoors versus outdoors versus what kind of setting?

[00:08:41] Oh, it doesn't matter because it's only about our thoughts. We're not actually looking around ourselves this time, but we're applying this to our thoughts.

[00:08:48] So you could be anywhere, just you could close your eyes, open the movie, anywhere. Why do you ask that?

[00:08:56] I think it's well, because, again, because I think there is a perceptual component ultimately to this. It is an interesting exercise to do both in a room where nothing's happening and also on a street where a procession of meaningless objects is passing.

[00:09:15] Except that it says close your eyes for these exercise. And I didn't listen to them.

[00:09:21] Close your eyes and then repeat. My thoughts do not mean anything. This idea will help to release me from all that I now believe. My thought about this doesn't mean anything. My thought about that doesn't mean anything.

[00:09:31] This idea will help to release me from all that I now believe.

[00:09:36] The other the other ones are. That was a good suggestion at the earlier expense, but my suggestion that can be applied.

[00:09:43] But you have to figure out which products to apply them to you yet that that whole thing couldn't sound more zen. Oh yeah. They can get closer to the kind of zen practice. You couldn't be closer. Pretty much, yeah. I mean, the idea of a lot of ways it's about again, separating things from. The associations we have with them, right, might be they personal or you know, that being a bottle of cologne and a coffee cup and what I feel about those, right.

[00:10:19] My thought about this cologne doesn't mean anything. Yeah, yeah. My thought about that coffee doesn't mean anything.

[00:10:25] And again, in one of my Facebook dating groups, someone popped up.

[00:10:32] Maybe you should clarify that because I've had to ask you what that means. Facebook dating group is a group is not a group of people on Facebook trying to date.

[00:10:40] Oh, no, no, no. What is it? It's a it's a group where people talk about dating people outside the group online usually. You know, it's it's a lot of women kvetching about online dating. Sure. Sure. There's one of them, I mean, which has men in it, too, which is, I think, a bit more useful. Yeah. Yeah. What's it called?

[00:11:04] You know, boy, that couldn't be less relevant. I'll look it up.

[00:11:08] Yeah. I mean three or four of unlikely, you know. But anyway, so this this is popped up. Woman's dating a guy. I get how long.

[00:11:19] Not terribly long, not months, but not more than weeks. And she met him for lunch or something and he was dropping her off at her office or something anyway, and she goes to take a selfie with him together.

[00:11:33] Oh, Sophie. He goes on a first date. No, no, no, no, no. This is after us. More more than weeks, but less than months. Like it's within the first 90 days of dating, let's say. But they've been on a bunch of dates. So that's a move that the moment. Yeah. It was a moment. It was a thing. Yeah. So he goes, oh, that's not my good side. Oh. And get out of it and get out of it, you know. And then I got out of the shop. Yeah. I wouldn't let her do it. So she's all like what the fuck.

[00:11:59] You know, I like what does this mean. You know, she's seeing someone else. It was really rude. I'm really upset. I went home and cried for two hours and. Mm hmm. So, I mean, this is this is really a great example. Like her thoughts don't mean anything about that. There's no way she could know, right. Unless she asks him or a psychic or comes to me to ask me, what do you think, what it meant? Because me, for example, I put selfies on social media all the time with anyone. I mean, I took one in the street. This guy got me to sign up for this thing and took a selfie with him.

[00:12:38] Yeah. Often without notifying. Yeah. Yeah. As in the cases when I find myself online, I don't know that I'm gonna do that deal with. Yeah. We need to talk about that later anyway.

[00:12:53] And then other people don't put that Sophie's online at all. Ever. They might especially teachers, public school teachers. Sure. So. And then I did have a moment with my former boyfriend where he got really squarely about me taking a selfie.

[00:13:12] And that was because he was cheating on me and he didn't want his girlfriend cause. Right. And so these are completely different, different behaviors.

[00:13:20] But the last one that you named. Yeah, I would. I'm just gonna go ahead and say that I would. Yeah. I think that that's gonna be the first thing to mind that it was the first thing to her mind. Right. And it's unfortunate because if you just by virtue of all the other things that you named. Even statistically, it's its tenth the most likely reason not to be in a selfie. For me, again, it it would tell it is 100 percent about. This is a step towards solidifying a relationship.

[00:13:55] Yes. And I am making a change. And that's what she was upset about because it signaled to her that he was not willing to take that step forward. Yeah, I see. But she also thought that she was. He was seeing some. Yeah. And that's why he wasn't willing. Right. So she might, too. She did assumptions.

[00:14:14] Yeah, but you know, lesson 10, my thoughts don't mean anything like she could have avoided all this upset if she'd done these exercises.

[00:14:21] You know, my thoughts don't mean anything. You can still find out. You can still ask. You can meditate. You can improve your intuition. You can do all that stuff without getting a broken heart, without getting crying for two hours, without wasting that energy and time.

[00:14:37] Now, you don't need to be so attached to your thoughts, which in fact, don't mean anything.

[00:14:43] All right. We're less than ten in what makes sense very much to be called the Course in Miracles, because this is a very tall order that's being asked of somebody.

[00:14:55] And it does it not? Yes. Yes. And that's why we do it step by step by step, little by little by little. This way. That way. Just for a minute at a time. All right.

[00:15:08] But, you know, as it says here in this exercise, this idea will help to release me from all that I now believe and that release is such a relief.

[00:15:18] You know. Yeah. Oh, absolutely, absolutely. I mean, I have experience I've definitely experienced prolonged moments at that stage, right. Where my what you said was released for more than a blink or where my wife where I was not invested in the putting meaning into my thoughts where I was. Right. Oh you from that release from. Yeah, sometimes by accident. And then after a lot of practice, sometimes, you know, on purpose. And it's been great. It's it's not. And it is probably a very its course is the natural state. It's a very natural state. But it's not one that's easily. You know, it's not easy to bounce back into without consistent press.

[00:15:59] Right. It's a habit. It's a new habit of thinking, which is exactly what a course in miracles is all about.

[00:16:05] I feel like if you master the skill and and walked into a first date, you would you would. It would be like dating an alien. It would be like dating.

[00:16:12] You mean da man? I would be the star man.

[00:16:15] I yeah, if I like sat down next across from somebody I had meeting for the first time and just like spoke truly from my heart about, you know, a world where I was not associating meetings to things. It it's just not the culture. But I think that.

[00:16:32] Well. Well, I mean, just trying to imagine. You know, I don't walk into dates and start talking about how nothing means anything to me.

[00:16:39] No.

[00:16:40] I mean, if you had dinner date in this state of state of mind, right? Well, you bet I do.

[00:16:46] Maybe you're right. Maybe, um, that's that's what I do. Yeah. And.

[00:16:52] But so. But the thing is, see, we only need like a little bit of ego. This is all about dismantling the ego. We only need as much ego as it takes just to have a personality and not to be like dummy, man, dummy.

[00:17:08] There would look what I said or whatever, you know. Right. Oh, I see. And I like that believable object. Yeah.

[00:17:20] So how do you keep my personality? Sure. Sure. Sure, sure. But this is how I walk around.

[00:17:29] Right.

[00:17:30] And you know, the thing that the one thing that can be offensive to people is if I laugh at something that is conventionally serious, subject to a traumatic subject or a tragic event. Example, please. Well, I had a client the other day and she is a hospice nurse. And as we started our work, she was giggling. And and we were talking about. She was wondering, you know, is this her purpose on earth? Is she doing the right thing, moving to this new career?

[00:18:07] And Spirit was was revealing that. Yes, it absolutely was, because she saw death as a joyful transition. Now she has to be very careful not to laugh and be very, very happy when people are dying, right?

[00:18:26] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:18:31] So, yeah, that is it's funny you should say. Yeah, that's weird. I come from a family where we're all forms of a tragedy. Maiming and horror are met with like a moment of acknowledgement followed by like let's make this somehow funny. Yes. Therapeutic and also horrible.

[00:18:58] Yeah. There's I'm not sure if it's different from gallows humor.

[00:19:00] I think that's a step towards it. I think my client was beyond that. It wasn't about gallows at all. It was truly a joyful transition, which is just how I see it. But I think gallows humor is really can be really healthy and a really good step towards it can be.

[00:19:18] And thirty nine years of it straight is is something other than helpful.

[00:19:26] Yeah. Well, right. I mean especially. And then if you're drinking it down, you know, you're having a week or whatever is you know, and you're drinking it all down. You know, that's not really helpful.

[00:19:33] But yeah. What do we laugh at today? It was a song you played me and we laugh. Oh, I laughed really hard at some lyric. Oh, well, it was it was it it took all the coke in town to bring down Dennis Brown. No, it was it was a little be that song, but it was a long before that about shooting. Was Kurt Cobain, was it that. No, it wasn't a about one too, by the way. It was a good one, too. So here in the mountain songs, we you know, we're about walking into and shooting people.

[00:20:01] Uh. Oh, pumping full of lead. Right.

[00:20:07] What's it like trying to remember? We're going to get back to you on that. But I always I'm going to bribe the officials. I'm going to kill all the judges. I don't know. Mountain Goats. The sunset tree. It's on there anyway.

[00:20:21] I'll have it by the end. But it was funny because I heard you laughing behind me and I was like, God. Not that many people in my life would laugh at this. Like I'm laughing.

[00:20:30] It's right. And I'll tell you honestly, at least me at least one of those points, I think my laughter was half conscious because. I was. I knew what content was coming home, as much as I know you and know you, not to kind of like being offended by anything you know or need like sort of a trigger warning. That's not the term looking to use, but I have coloration. Yeah, I heard a much better term medium than that. Oh, just so content. The content preparation content till morning again. Content with something like that. I don't know heard. I've heard the Orpheus product content doesn't very well. It's beginning of episodes where in fiction something that could then content warning is not a bad way of doing it. But anyway. Yep. Right. So although you are not one to need much of that in my experience. Part of that laughter was to say. I know that this line is kind of fucked, huh? Yeah, I think. But after that, you know, can I can I pause? Yes. We should have maybe discussed earlier, but we don't. We're at episode 10 now. Episode 10, maybe eleven. Well, it's less than 10. Less than 10. Yes. But we're it we're a little bit into the podcast now. I don't really know if the listeners know what it means when you say I was working with a client.

[00:22:01] Oh yeah. Right. So I'm a psychic medium and spiritualist minister and my clients come to me for help with spiritual growth.

[00:22:13] And they sometimes have very specific questions like can I please talk to my recently deceased brother about what he wants to do about the will? Yeah. Huh? Yeah. Very useful. And other times it's like I'm being haunted in my dreams.

[00:22:31] Or does this mean or I'm seeing things? Am I insane or it's helped me deal with my mother, who has always armors and I want to grow with this spiritual challenge so it can run the gamut. You know, it's ministering and it's psychic medium shaped like a psychic therapist.

[00:22:53] Right. Okay. That's really funny. There's. The aforementioned Orpheus protocol features a character who is a psychic psychiatrist.

[00:23:04] Oh, really? Would be the best psychiatrist. Well, that's what I'm saying. Everyone should come to me because I can tell you what people in your life are thinking. You don't have to, like, go round and run around about it, but you can't read minds. That's the one.

[00:23:17] Oh, I do. Tune in. I can't. No. I should say I can't tell you what they're thinking. I can tell you what they're feeling.

[00:23:23] Right. But if you could read minds, you would know that I was gonna bring us on this huge tangent, which I did.

[00:23:29] Well, even if I could read minds, I have to choose to do it. So this is people thing. People think I walk around like knowing everything.

[00:23:34] But no, that would be fucking magic. Goddamn nightmare. Yes, I know. I don't. I don't do that. I don't. I don't do that. Did you turn on and off? So where the hell are we now? Well, our thoughts don't mean anything, that's all.

[00:23:51] We have to live in the moment. And this is an exercise to do it. Yeah, me think, you know, how do you think?

[00:24:01] So let's say you work on this lesson and you start. You get getting it. It's working for you. What sort of outcomes might you. What? What? What things might you expect to see? Experience differently in your day to day question?

[00:24:18] Yeah, totally, yeah. Well, it means you won't be upset so much like the the woman I mentioned, you know, someone's like jumping out of a selfie and you'll go, huh? And you'll get curious about it as opposed to attached to your own thought. Which leads to a painful emotion. And pretty soon, eventually, pretty soon, eventually, you won't be afraid of a broken heart.

[00:24:46] And that that to me is something I would love to give to people, especially women, to go into dates, to go into relationships romantically, especially, but even with children and pair dying parents to go into them without being afraid of being hurt, because then you can live fully as opposed to living half way because you're afraid and you're putting up walls or getting defensive.

[00:25:18] Okay. Can you tell? God it.

[00:25:24] Oh, sorry.

[00:25:24] I almost made it out on a huge way and I'm not gonna to that about why this is the third time we're trying to do that. I don't know. Nobody knows that.

[00:25:34] It's an edit point. We can take that out. All right. So that's interesting what you just said. Especially interesting. What it's tell me, if you would. Because I don't know as a woman what what is a woman afraid of being? In what way is a woman afraid of being hurt on a on a first or second date? Aside from some, you know, really horrible over the top kind of thing.

[00:26:02] I'm not sure if it's exactly being hurt like by the first or second type, but it's afraid of at some point the helicopter now breaking her heart. OK. Yeah, afraid of afraid of opening up. And at some point in the near ish future, the guy disappearing or changing his mind or not being the one and then she's left brokenhearted.

[00:26:33] That is so interesting to me because I you my experience is sorta. Along the lines of. Not knowing when, not knowing when it's the right moment to kind of show emotion because that can scare a person. In my experience, you showing emotion scares the women. That's a concern of mine. I don't know that it does. I mean, I've not heard that feedback because. Well, I just haven't. But I think. Well, so shown. OK. So, I mean, I think you'd agree that that that showing more than average emotion means that you're communicating to the other person, that you are prepared. You have a greater depth emotionally and that you're you're getting invested in the relationship. I have feelings for you. And now, you know, the last time.

[00:27:33] Well, that's two different things. And I think that's a very important point. And what I try to teach is that just having feelings right now doesn't mean you're promising anything. It doesn't mean you're investing. I don't even know what that word means. I would assume that it means I'm investing in the future.

[00:27:51] Like, if, you know, if it's like a financial term, like I'm putting money into this for four in the hope of future future gains. And I and I think that that's wrong, wrong mindedness. I think that's the perception that we can benefit from dissolving. I can be very, very much in the moment and expressing an incredibly strong, deep and high and wide emotion. Yes. Do not expect anyone to ask me to marry them or not not ask anyone on a second date. I mean, it just it is now that.

[00:28:32] And that's fantastic. I have not. Run into a lot of people like that, right, and I think that's what we're trying to learn here.

[00:28:40] Right.

[00:28:47] So we've done it. I think we'll be there'll be more on this in a minute.

[00:28:51] And after midnight for the no. But to come.

[00:28:56] Ok. Well, let's let's end this here. Let's go to Americans in Manhattan after midnight. What is it? Miracles after midnight?

[00:29:01] Something like that. Yeah. Well, let's go to let's invite people to that site. But oh, we should also tell people, hey, guys and gals, we have an e-mail address now. Yes, we do.

[00:29:12] And why do we have an e-mail address stuff so that you can e-mail us questions with questions? We're taking questions. [email protected]

[00:29:20] We are going to answer your questions in as apt a fashion as we answer one another's here on this.

[00:29:28] Yes. Miracles in Manhattan, Gmail dot com. Easy to remember. Yeah. All you have to do is remember the name of the podcast. And then Gee Mary, popular Google product Miracles in Manhattan, G.M. dot com.

[00:29:41] So just remember that. Well, we'll point you in the right direction. Yeah. And yeah.

[00:29:47] Friels do to please e-mail questions and don't feel like they need to be totally pertinent to the episode you just listened to.

[00:29:54] No, no, no. I need any any of you any lesson yet. All right. Well, that's lesson 10. OK, I'll see you next time.

[00:30:03] Let's move on. All right. That's that. We're done here. All right.

[00:30:06] Hey, have a great week. Then you say goodbye. Oh, by the way. Sure. I'll keep. That was fun. That was good. I can. We're back on track in.

--- Spirituality, sexuality, love, mental health

Hello? HELLO?

Aren't you here yet?

This week, the Miracles in Manhattan Podcast talks about Lesson 9 of A Course in Miracles. Things get wild. Talking points include:

• The least boring spiritual practice you can do
• The best story we've got in us
• Steph finds enlightenment, or it finds her
• Marco's floored
• Secrets
• Learning true love by the lash
• The best story we've got
• Hints at a companion podcast???

Advice, ACIM, A Course in Miracles, True Crimes, Comedy, Pain, Politics, The Present, Love, Dating, Race, BDSM, The body, Spirit, Self-help, Spirit

No time like the present. Lesson 8. ACIM.

My past is a brushfire that I fight with kerosene. Time is a tiger overtaken by time. Thinking is the loneliest thing there is. This is a bad neighborhood, and the only way out is through.

This week, as we rev up to record brand new episodes, the Miracles in Manhattan Podcast team takes on Lesson 8 of A Course in Miracles...and other matters. Talking points include:.

• How to let the world pass you by
• Hell is other people—but does it have to be?
• An ex-Chef's dilemma or, histories of hamburgers I have known
• Zen and the joy of foolishment.
• What they don't tell you in voiceover school
• Cyberpunk, bonsai, vampire, hungry: a minute with Marco
• Another very special therapist
• Stephanie turns a corner
• What to do when here and now is there and then
• Miracles are for lovers

Come find us!

http://www.miraclesinmanhattan.com

https://twitter.com/WildManhattan

https://twitter.com/RogueSignalCast

---

Advice, ACIM, Comedy, Pain, Anger, Cyberpunk, Divorce, Freedom, Dating, Oppression, Perception, Self-help, Health, Spirituality, Zen

So far your story has made me look inward, and I have found myself wanting. Finish with another story, so that I may escape this feeling, and whatever's causing it.

-

Get ready for something almost impossible to believe, but easy to practice.

This week, the Miracles in Manhattan Podcast talks about Lesson 6 of A Course in Miracles, and more. Talking points:

• THE REAL REASON YOU ARE UPSET IS _______ !
• When Marco lived in a mirror
• Mad Max, Mel Gibson, and the PerthApocalypse
• Seeing what others cannot: the worst superpower
• Hot kids, hot mics, hot takes
• Everyday Texas Chainsaw Massacres
• Tap, tap, tap: Steph's special mic technique
• Thoughts vs things - a steel-cage free-for-all you can win
• A weird and happy wedding
• Destroy all the boredom
• NYC, invisible city

Visit us at MiraclesinManhattan.com

Outside this room, life is pain. If I try to figure out why. Tell me a story to distract me until I'm ready to confront my thoughts, will you?

This week, the Miracles in Manhattan Podcast talks about Lesson 5 of A Course in Miracles. When you're upset, take comfort in the fact that you don't know why. In this cliffhanger of an episode, we learn to mistrust our feelings. Or what we think we're feeling.

Listen as one of your co-hosts delivers an Oscar-worthy dramatization of a totes hypothetical divorce. Totes. Hypothetical. Talking points include:

• Marco takes scopolamine and talks for 30 mins.
• The dishes are, in fact, not dirty
• Divorce, divorce, and more divorce
• Getting comfy with discomfort
• Ice cream, coffee, writing a book: let it come down
• Language v. Love
• How to rewrite history in under a minute
• Charles Dickens: Threat or Menace?
• Steph does some spiritual coaching
• The most expensive therapy besides therapy
• Starbucks, if you're listening

Visit http://miraclesinmanhattan.com

It's loud in here. Everything I see in this room is like an echo chamber, bouncing my ideas and feelings back at me in a voice that is not my own. I can't hear myself think.

Oh...hold on. That's a good thing, isn't it?

Freedom of thought and freedom from thought go hand in hand. This week, your favorite poet-producer and psychic medium share bonus outtakes, and discuss how to get free from invasive thoughts and feelings--and why doing it is a fundamentally revolutionary act of self-care. A page from A course in Miracles helps us trouble the annoying idea that there's such a thing as Good and Evil.

Things get wavy. Jump on here.

Talking points include:

• How to stop oppressing yourself
• Killing the mind killer
• "That one younger guy I've been dating…"
• Steph decodes emoji
• Mowing asphalt in Manhattan
• Why my family will never listen to this podcast
• Let's not have crazy hot sex
• Let's have crazy hot sex
• Male ego panic: desire vs. reality
• Recognizing bad dating advice when you hear it
• Fill in the ____ Zen
• How to scare a French schoolboy

Things don't mean things. Lesson 3.

So first you tell me that in this room nothing means anything—unless I give it meaning. (And so I concede the point: I look at that painting because you painted it, I like tonic because I used to love gin—I am drawn to what is familiar to me, to things that remind me of my experiences.) But now you tell me that the only way to leave this place is to convince myself that I truly don't understand anything in here.

You tell me that to stay in this room is death. To escape, you say, I've got to shed my instincts and stop making sense from the things that I can see and touch, as if today were the first day of my life.

What's on the other side of that door?

This week, the Miracles in Manhattan Podcast team takes on Lesson 3 of A Course in Miracles...and other matters. Talking points include:.

• Understanding is human. Unknowing is divine
• The only dangerous cup
• Tenderly curated foul language
• Blindfolds and baking bread: Stephanie on sexual healing
• "I don't know," or how to save the world with just 3 words
• Need a friend? Ask for the impossible!
• Undating the minor poets of New York
• When you meet the Buddha, make strange
• A skinny, 6' tall, mom in the Sahara: meet the bravest firefighter
• Not weird enough: Marco meets his match
• This machine kills fascists: becoming-blank slate
• "I'm not a woman, but if I were…" A problematic thought experiment
• Your okayest life

Come find us!

http://www.miraclesinmanhattan.com

https://twitter.com/WildManhattan

https://twitter.com/RogueSignalCast

You are caught in a dream. Lesson 2.

The world is a fiction of my own making. I've given everything in this room—everything I see—the meaning it has. And so have you. Is your story anything like my story? Are we really in the same room? Why do so many things we see bother us?

Let's get outta here.

This week, the Miracles in Manhattan Podcast team takes on Lesson 2 of A Course in Miracles...and other matters. Talking points include:.

• How we see things. How to undo how we see things
• Are you a trauma junkie or true masochist? Move to NYC and find out
• Getting sober, staying weird
• Empathy: tips and tricks
• Marco doesn't prepare for the show: a rationalization.
• Sleeping vs passing out on the subway: Steph draws a line
• Perception is projection. Dammit
• Home is $20/week and a kind airline mechanic
• The gift of lies in love and loss
• What business meetings and mass hallucinations have in common

Come find us!

http://www.miraclesinmanhattan.com

https://twitter.com/WildManhattan

https://twitter.com/RogueSignalCast

This week, MiM takes on lesson 1 of ACIM and much more...

Nothing I see means anything.

There's nothing in this room. Nothing real, anyway. Just you. But…nothing in this room really exists, right? Yikes. We take on A Course in Miracles, Lesson 1. Talking points include:

• The follies of perception in spiritual and everyday life
• Marco's misadventures in adolescent psychotherapy
• How Stephanie learned to speak proper
• What to wear when you need a driver's license or a small business loan
• The Past: M, F, or K?
• Hyper-karaoke
• Health or, Dismantling the ego on air
• Tribal beliefs and flirting
• The worst place a writer can go, and how to make your readers feel strange

MiM: EPISODE 1: Enjoy the show? Give us a rating on Apple Podcasts or your app of choice and maybe even tell a friend! See you next week.

http://www.miraclesinmanhattan.com