Okay do you see it now? Not yet. Do you see it? It says we're live. Okay on the. Wait hold on. There's an ad. Oh we're live now. Okay. Hi everyone. Hi. Technical difficulties. Sorry. Sorry we're a bit late. Alright. Okay. Well hi everybody. Hi. Hi I'm Gabby. And I'm Linda. Nice to meet you. So welcome to our YouTube live. Sorry for the technical difficulties. But this live is meant to be interactive. And so we can go back and forth. So please use the chat box down below and drop your two cents and your ideas on whatever we're discussing. Whether you agree, disagree, like or dislike what we're saying or have anything to say to add to the conversation. So please use the chat box below. I see Lamar has already typed something from the chat. Hi Lamar. Hi Lamar says I need help. I'm 13 and dealing with stress and anxiety. Please tell us a little bit more about what's causing your stress and anxiety. While you type we'll keep progressing with this live but be as detailed as possible so we can help you the best way possible. Okay. So by the way we've added a new feature, a cool new feature to our live streams. It's called Super Chat. If you see where you type in the chat box underneath it there's like an emoji, grey icon and then like a rectangle dollar sign grey icon. If you click that you can send us some love by donating a small amount to help our channel. It helps fund our videos so we can keep creating helpful contents for you. Hopefully you have been following our videos and find them useful and helpful for whatever you're dealing with at this present moment. Your donations help us reach more people who need help dealing with mental health. As you know our channel deals with mental health especially for youth, young adults on loneliness, depression and anxiety. So if you want to help support that then please donate to us in the Super Chat. For anyone who donates over $25 in the Super Chat we will schedule a separate 15 minute one-on-one session with you to help you with something specific. So let's say for example you don't get your question answered here or you want to talk a little bit more privately one-on-one about a specific thing that you're going through then donating to our channel we'll get you a 15 minute one-on-one with us in the Super Chat. Yes. Great. So our live today is going to be an open discussion about mental health and mental health can mean so many things and can encompass a large number of topics. So in honor of World Mental Health Day that just passed on October 10, we're going to talk about two topics that we personally connect to and that affect many young people and people young at heart. And that is loneliness and depression. Yes. So as I mentioned before our channel specifically talks about mental health for youth, young people on topics of loneliness, depression, anxiety and stress relief. But we do realize that loneliness and depression are not just limited to young people that anyone at any age at any point in your life, any income, any religion, any background can experience loneliness and depression. So if you weren't lonely before, if you are doing just fine, I believe that this era of social distancing and uncontact as they call it, uncontact is now making our sense of loneliness, isolation, maybe depression, hopelessness a bit worse. So I just want to get that out there that you know I'm a people person and I definitely miss hugging people I miss contact I miss the days when we can rub shoulders with each other in the subway and it was okay and you can sneeze in public and no one looks at you like you have the plague or something. But yes, so I just wanted to get that out there I don't know if you guys are feeling that way to you guys are people people. Yeah. So who here I want to hear in the chat of who here has felt even more lonely and depressed at the state of things now. It can be about the pandemic, the crazy election that we're having this year. Anything. Can you type your response in the chat box and we'll be answering your questions based off of your responses. So let's take some time maybe Gabby, let's read some of the comments that we have here. Alright, so Lamar said depersonalization. That's what triggered it your stress and anxiety. Okay, the depersonalization separation, your mind is not inside of your body it's outside, causing you to focus too much on outside things and not giving enough energy and attention to inside of you. That gap between your mind and your body your mind being outside and you being here is causing the anxiety, causing the depersonalization and causing the stress that comes with it. So we'll touch a little bit more about this as we go further down in our live today if we don't answer your question Lamar, please keep typing in the chat and let us know how we can formulate our answers to better, better guide you through what you're struggling with. And Francine says, Hi, I love you both. We love you to Francine. Thanks Francine. And she says, How do you deal with a narcissistic husband. It's abusive and puts me down. I get depressed, lonely and have anxiety. Yes, I hear your Francine. I'll talk a little bit more about that later but I just want to say that a lot of people not just you a lot of people deal with either a loved one or a boss or a friend maybe someone who maybe crosses the line in too many ways and doesn't show you respect but it's absolutely up to you to stand up and say something to the person and draw that line firmly and not be afraid that as a result of drawing that line that person will now not like you. I think that's what stops a lot of us from not drawing a clear line in our relationships every relationship needs a line and an area of respect that you need to keep for each other. But I think a lot of people are afraid to draw the line because they're afraid if I draw that line then that person is not going to love me anymore that person's going to see me differently so has to go beyond the fear. So what's more important this person loving you or me loving myself and not putting myself through this so we can talk a little bit more about the details of this as we go on Francine so hang tight don't leave. Yes. So, let's see. Rand says, it's been a while, and it's helping me we're glad you're back. So yes, this is our new live that we're back. You know we do a live every single month so we're glad you're joining us here today as well. So, let's. Okay, keep typing in the chat well I promise we'll answer these as we go. I just want to get things rolling a little bit and then we'll talk more about the specifics of what you guys are going through so we'll just keep continuing with this live don't go anywhere. Keep typing. We're listening we're looking. Okay, we'll get to you. So I'll get started with so I did a little bit of research to find kind of the how loneliness and depression has been affecting people nowadays. So according to surveys conducted by the Mental Health Foundation, there are one in four people or 24% that feel more loneliness due to the pandemic. And before it was only one in 10 people so that was only 10% of people so it rose significantly. In terms of depression there were studies that found that depression rose three fold during the during the pandemic than before. So, it rose due to greater exposure to stress stressors like job loss uncertainty, change and loneliness. And so many of us, the, the pen, the surveys showed that many of us can feel lonely from time to time, and those short term feelings aren't really shown to really harm our mental health. When there are big restrictions on what we can do when there's extra stress, extra uncertainty and extra anxiety about the future that impact of long term loneliness on mental health can be very hard to manage. So it was interesting to see how much it rose just due to the pandemic and due to people being more isolated less human contact more, you know, regulations. So the purpose of our lives today is to create a space where we can openly talk about loneliness and depression. I feel that a lot of people as you saw in the statistics suffer from loneliness and depression, and yet not a lot of people talk about it. And, or even admit that they're going through it because there's kind of a social taboo placed on loneliness and depression that if you like talk about it with your friends like they say oh like just snap out of it or pull yourself out of it and pull yourself together so it's very hard to talk about it. And so, you know, we want to encourage you guys to use the chat use the chat and please tell us about your experience with loneliness your expression, your experience with depression because in our live today, Gabby and I will share our personal experiences with it. So we want to have like a table discussion for us to just create a space where it's safe to talk about it, and then just from talking about it, we can feel better and heal and feel like maybe we're not so alone in this loneliness after all. So I want to first share my experience with depression and loneliness because, you know, despite what you may think about the public personality I have on on YouTube, I was not always like this. It was very hard for me to smile actually for the most of my life. And if I see pictures of myself back in the day, before I found brain education before I started any kind of internal practice like, I could not smile. And I would, I have some pictures where I'm literally smiling like this.  And if you guys want while I share my story please type about your own experiences to and as I share my story I'm going to answer some of the questions like Lamar, your fear that the world is going to end like I'm going to touch upon that in my story so please keep typing okay type your whatever you want to share. So in my case, I had something that was high functioning depression. So when we think depression we kind of think just one side of depression which is like someone who like is so sad and can't get out of bed and like crying and crying and like just like this, this is what we feel depression is. But there are, there's another side of depression that now I can see that I fell under. And that is someone who is very high functioning, but is feeling depressed and lonely inside. So a high functioning depressed and lonely person looks like this they, they go to school. On the outside they look like they have a lot of friends they have their life together. Everything's just checkbox like they're doing things right on the outside, and it seems like there's nothing wrong with them on the outside because I don't see them crying every day I don't see them like, you know, putting like black eyeliner on their eyes like there's something that indicates that this person is lonely and depressed. And yet, on the inside, I always felt like I had this gaping hole in the middle of my chest. It's a very strange thing to try to explain but no matter how much I tried to fill up that hole with more friends or trying to push myself harder in school for better grades I thought maybe if I got better grades I would feel better. Maybe if I had more friends I would feel better. Maybe if I played more sports I would feel better. Maybe if I went out to play more I would feel better I tried to feel so many external things maybe if I had nicer clothes maybe if I drove a nice car maybe if I had nice things you know but no matter how much I tried to fill it with outside things I still felt so unexplainably empty right here. And it was driving me insane to the point where I felt like if I have this empty feeling in my chest for the rest of my life, then I don't know if I can go on. I don't know if I can live like this for the rest of my life. But on the outside, I didn't show it because I also had a lot of pride I didn't want people to judge me I didn't want people to be like, I don't want people to label me as like Linda is depressed like Linda is a Debbie Downer you know like I wanted to be socially accepted. So I would walk around pretending like nothing was wrong with me but inside I was dying. And I think maybe a key case of something similar to this is what you see in celebrities like a lot of like comedians funny funny people, people who have screaming fans millions of fans who are willing to do anything for them. It looks like they have the best life they have people who love them they have money they have nice houses they have status they have everything that anyone could dream of. And yet you hear stories of these people, all of a sudden, overdosing on drugs and dying committing suicide and dying and you're wondering what is going on I thought this person was okay I wanted to be like this person. So, it's like this loneliness and depression my point is it's not always evidence on the outside that there are people, a lot of people, like me, who are struggling with it internally, and trying to hide it externally, and just going about, like, feeling so empty and hopeless and lost and losing control having no sense of self confidence, as a result of that. Yeah, so that's that was my experience with loneliness and depression and I would say I had this for most of my life, because I grew up in a family environment that was like my parents bought a lot.  There was always fighting always yelling. And then I always carried a lot of guilt to because I felt like I'm the I'm the first child. So a lot of the times like when my parents fought like I thought why don't they just get separated why don't they just go their own way. But then they would say things like, you know, we're together because we have a kid. And at that time I was the only child right.  You know, so I had this like guilt like my existence is the reason why my parents are unhappy like my existence is the reason why they can't even get separated like I'm the problem. You know, I felt this way for a long time so that also contributed to my depression and loneliness. Yeah, so maybe some of you guys resonate with some things that I'm talking about here. But yeah, let me see some comments in the chat. Let's see. So Francine. When you feel anxiety is an exercise we can do to help get rid of the anxiety attack like tapping. Okay, I'll tell you about this at the end. Rand, I'm always making sure I'm taking all my meds yet I'm dizzy off balance I cannot stand sunlight. I appreciate what you two are doing. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thanks for sharing Rand. Thanks for sharing. Okay friends seen I'm a combination of high function and feeling like I'm feeling like not getting out of bed. I totally understand. I was like that too I would sleep for a long time, because there was nothing for me to look forward to when I woke up. So I would just leave. Yes, Joanna hi Joanna. Hi, I'm so important. Yes. Lamar Savage are you still there because I find therapy really helps. Perry. Hello. Thanks for sharing this Francine yes. Yeah, if you guys can type in the chat where you guys are logging in from that would be really helpful to maybe like city and state. So we know where everyone's tuning in from. Yes. So now I want to share a little bit about looking back how I was able to get out of that loneliness and change my energy from a lonely depressed state to to now where I feel really fulfilled and confident in my own skin. So I think when I look back on it. It had to do with my brain. It had to do with how I wired myself to perceive my life. How I wired myself to think about my situations.  So as I mentioned, you know there's a lot of fighting in my household and I felt this emptiness and I couldn't fill it with anything.  I like fixated on that negative thing, you know, I only saw the negative things in my life. And by seeing only the negative side of every situation. I went in a state where I focus too much of my mind and attention on things that I couldn't control. So, like, my parents fighting I can't control that you know it's their choice to fight. I can't control that. And like, like other situations like I can't control how this cool girl at school thinks of me, you know like if I want her to like me but she doesn't like me I can't control that you know. So I was, and I can't control like what colleges I go into, even though maybe let's say I didn't by the way but maybe let's say I wanted to go to Harvard, but if they don't accept me I can't control that right. So I was so focused on like things that I couldn't control things that already happened things that it was up to other people's decision. And because I wanted to so badly control the things that I couldn't control. I was giving all of my energy there. And when I tried to control things that I couldn't control, because I couldn't control that I felt hopeless. I felt like nothing was in my power. And because nothing felt like it was in my power I felt like, well then why do I even try. And like Lamar like you shared you feel this fear like this world is going to end like I felt that way too like, like, Jesus Christ I'm working so hard and I feel like I can't get a job out of college I feel like the world is going to end why do I try and I was focusing on these things that I couldn't control, but I wasn't seeing that there's the other side of how to interpret every circumstance and situation in my life which was how can I see the same thing in a positive light. What are the aspects that I can control. For example, like, I talked about let's say I wanted to go to Harvard, but I didn't get accepted to Harvard. I can't control Harvard's decision to not accept me. But what I in that same situation what I could control is how I talk to myself as a result of that. So I think more than Harvard not accepting me.  Why do you even try like that kind of thoughts that comes after it is what makes someone suffer more. It was my choice to talk to myself in a negative way, or talk to myself in a positive way. So when you focus on the things that you can control in every situation that really made me feel like okay you know what, I do have power. Not everything is hopeless. And I'm not here. Like Lamar said, feeling that sense of like I feel like the world is going to end. There's no hope. You know what this this might sound really bleak, but it's fact and true that every single one of us is going to die at some point. You might sound like oh my god Linda how can you say that that's so bleak that's so terrible, but it's true. There's not a single person no matter how rich you are no matter how pretty popular you are who avoided that. Right.  This is inevitable everyone's going to die. But you don't try to touch that you don't try to cheat death. But what you do is, then, since I can't control death, I can control life. Until death comes. How do I choose to create my life story is completely up to me. I'm just focused on the fact that I can't control death and my and I ruined my life, trying to fix this. Then your narrative will be one of continuous anxiety victim consciousness, trying to focus all the time on something you can't control which is what makes you nervous anxious stress lonely depressed. You just leave things you can't control as they are. And then you look at, wait a minute, but I can control what happens until the point of death.  That's the important thing. That's what you need to focus on. That's what help that kind of shift is what made me get out of the loneliness and depression. And be able to say, you know what, I'm not a victim.  That was a very important turning point. Yes. That was very long but I felt like that was very my honest truth. That was a really good sharing, like very clear and like how you got out of it as well. Really. So I wanted to share a little bit as well to, but more on how the pandemic has affected me and how loneliness and depression has really been worse during the pandemic just like for so many people. Like Linda said, it's been a matter of choice and a matter of choosing to during the depression and during these situations to make yourself happy to choose to look at the positive things when it's really hard to. So just like everyone the pandemic has certainly changed my day to day life and has made me more feel more lonely and more depressed. And I'm someone who kind of tries to ignore my emotions and bury them and not confront them so I tried to do things to distract myself. And I tried to really bottle everything up and just not not face it and I know that's like many people you just, you know you try to like trick yourself and distract yourself so during lockdown and the pandemic. I had more opportunities and more time to really open up and face my emotions, which has helped me release a lot of them and release like the dark heavy energy that I bottle up inside and there's just many things that happened recently like I lost a loved one and so it just made things even extra hard and difficult, but I felt like I didn't really have control over my circumstances like Linda mentioned, just hard, you know things seem like they're falling apart so this is definitely something that many people are experiencing to like many things are out of our control. The way I've been kind of dealing with it and going through it is making it a daily choice to choose to be happy or to be positive or look at the situation in another way. So it's very easy for all of us to feel stuck in a negative state. It's a real overpowering and it can be hard to say you know why should I be happy so everything may seem hopeless but ultimately it's your choice whether you choose whether your environment dictates your emotions and your feelings, and being able to smile is really not much to smile about. So that may sound kind of forced or not natural in the beginning but it's an indicator that shows just how much your brain is dependent on your environment to make you happy. So this really ties into what Linda said and also I saw a comment from Paul. He said how do you limit loneliness in this time of isolation. So I would answer that with it's your choice just just how I said it's your daily choice when you wake up every day to not let your surroundings and circumstances take over in a negative way to choose to be happy. It's all under your power and it's all under all our power but we just don't always use that power.  So can you guys share if you've had loneliness if you've had depression. I know some of you guys are joining the webinar the live a little bit later so you weren't able to see the people before who already shared some other experiences but I really want to hear your experience with loneliness and depression and if you were able to overcome it. How did you overcome it if you're still struggling with it that's okay there's absolutely nothing wrong with that there's no right or wrong answer. And what are some of the key takeaways that you've experienced from your own battles with loneliness and depression. So meanwhile while you guys type that we can address some of your comments in the chat that we weren't able to address before so maybe Gabby can we read some of the chats that weren't mentioned. Sure so Perry is said he's from still water Minnesota hello and Francine is from New York City and Joanna says I've lived with anxiety and depression for decades due to abuse I use all natural means to help me as I don't like medication. Yeah. So it seems like there's a couple people who are facing some kind of abuse, whether it's psychological or physical. And you know I just want to get it out there that if someone is abusing you there's nothing wrong with you. When someone treats someone poorly. It's a reflection of their inner struggle, their chaos, their battle that they should be dealing with themselves but they're not strong enough to handle it on their own they take it out on somebody else. So the first thing that people think if they're receiving abuse is that there has to be something wrong with me that I'm not lovable that I'm doing that it's all my fault and you might be stuck in that state where it's like me I'm the problem, but it's not you at all. It's not you at all and if you're abuse the abuse that you're feeling is very bad. I, I really really suggest you ask for help in your community. There are many different resources for like abuse hotlines and stuff like that. But for the sake of just, you know, speaking openly and candidly in this live here. I mentioned this earlier too but if someone is crossing the line of not respecting you and not treating you like the way you should be treated. Then it's totally 1000% up to you to put that line down without fear of what the other person will think of you. So a lot of the times when people are afraid to put that line down it's because you're afraid of, if I set this line, then this other person will not love me anymore. This other person will judge me. This other person will abuse me more maybe, you know, but it's not even about this other person it's about you at the end of the day when you feel this abuse when you feel mistreated, treated, disrespected by somebody. I think what taunts us more than the abuse and disrespect itself is how I play that scenario over and over in my head when I'm alone. How I analyze it and how I feel like I'm so mad I wasn't able to protect myself or stand up for myself. I think that eats away at our consciousness and our mind more than what outside people are doing to us. So then at that moment you have to see, okay, if I really care about myself, if I really value my self care over anyone else's love or recognition, then I have to act in a way that puts me first. There's no shame and guilt in putting yourself first.  No! No! You have to take care of yourself first because if you don't take care of yourself, if you don't know how to take care of yourself, then you will not know how to take care of other people. It's plain and simple.  Right. It's plain and simple. If you don't know how to love yourself, you can't teach love to other people. If you don't know how to take care of yourself, you don't know how to teach love and care to other people as well. So it's totally up to you. You have the power to set boundaries in your relationship and you absolutely should. Why? Because it's an active self-love for you. Yes. Okay, I think there's more. Yes. So some more comments. Rand says, living in Las Vegas. Hello. Joanna is from London, UK. She also says, catastrophizing is part of anxiety. It's horrible, but you can talk yourself out of that feeling. Yes. Francine says, we read Paul's how to limit loneliness and isolation. Francine says, can you say those three things again? I can control, stay positive. So I think this was when you were sharing your story, Linda. Yeah, so it's not like, I don't have like a list of things that you should change. It's more so like in every situation that's making you feel hopeless, that's making you feel lonely and making you feel depressed. How can I interpret that situation in a positive light? So for example, like I have this drink here, right? It's in a glass bottle. If I look at it in a negative way, I can use this bottle to knock somebody out. I can use it to bonk somebody in the head and knock them out. That's me using this in a negative way and seeing what kind of negative way I could like interpret this bottle. But then on the other side, if I look, if I, the same bottle, nothing different, even the amount of liquid in here is the same. The same exact bottle I look at it on the positive side. How can I use this bottle for positivity? Wait a minute, I'm thirsty. Let me drink out of this bottle. And quench my thirst. It's the same darn product, but you're using it in a good way or using it in a negative way. Just like this, every situation in your life, whether it be death, whether it be a divorce, a breakup, anything can be interpreted in a bad way in a negative way. Even this coronavirus, even this pandemic can be interpreted in a very negative way or it can be interpreted in a positive way. Everything has a positive and a negative. So it's up to you to decide, am I going to interpret every situation in my life for me to be the victim, for me to feel like there's no hope. I feel so lonely, so depressed, anxious as the way to get out of it. Or am I going to say, okay, Linda, snap out of it. Let me see how I can focus on the good side of this.  Yeah, positive brain.   Rewiring your brain to look at things in a positive way. This can be a weapon of death, or it can be a weapon of thirst quenching. It's the same darn thing. The only difference is how I choose to see it. Yeah, yes. Okay. So more comments, Rand says hope from Durango Center is helpful all the time she told me to study with you so our thank you, Linda and Gabby. Joanna says I lost my job so now I'm taking an educational course I left an abusive partner and now I'm in therapy all during the pandemic but I'm using rock bottom as my starting point and the only way is up. Exactly. Yes, exactly. When you're at rock bottom the only way to go is up.  Some person can say I'm at rock bottom. Oh, woe is me. I'm just going to stay here I feel hopeless I feel like I lost my job.  Rock bottom means that the only way that I can go, whatever I do is up. So let me just do everything try everything and not be afraid. So good just like that. Yes, she also says I feel incredibly lonely but I'm using the time to practice self improvement because I didn't have the time before. It's a perfect way to use this extra time during the pandemic as many people have had more time at home and you know, more like time to contemplate and reflect on what they're doing who they are and things like that so that's great that you're using this time to really do some introspection and another comment I was abused as a child and ended up in an abusive romantic relationship but I left them a couple of months ago and now I'm learning to heal. Yes. Yes. See now this is an opportunity to start fresh to write a different story. You've written the story of abuse for so long from a child to now it reflects in your romantic relationship. So now folding that and moving on. It might seem like oh I feel lost I feel empty. So let's let go of something that's familiar if, especially if that familiar feeling is abuse but as a result of having closed this now you can rewrite a new narrative of your life story. You go girl girl girl girl girl yeah Perry also said you go girl. Thank you girls. So Francine has one more question so how do you feel, how do you feel not so lonely. That's a very good question. So, and this goes back to what Paul was saying above about how to not feel so lonely during the pandemic when we're all in isolation. So Paul if you're still here I want to give my two cents about your sharing too so when you feel lonely. So when we talk about loneliness in our practice in brain education. We say, ultimately, loneliness in an energetic spiritual aspect. It stems from me, not knowing who I am. Me not knowing myself. So me not having a relationship with my own self is what ultimately subconsciously is driving that sense of emptiness and loneliness that you feel inside. It has nothing to do with how many friends you have or contact, because as I mentioned before, when I felt that gaping hole of loneliness in my chest I had many friends around me. I had many people, and this was before the coronavirus so we were rubbing shoulders sneezing on each other hugging eating this close to each other, you know. Those things were happening and yet I felt so incredibly lonely, like nobody understood what I was saying, even though my friends were listening felt like nobody understood what I was saying, nobody understood my struggle fully. So that I felt like isolation.  The loneliness we feel inside has to do with the fact that I don't know myself really. So these key questions I want to ask you friends scene. What do you want. Do you know exactly what you want in life. And another question and anyone can answer this to in the chat. Another question is, who are you.  Do you know what you want. And lastly, do you know where your life is going. These three questions. If you really think about it are very complicated. Right there. They seem simple, but they're very hard. But if you think about it, not like reflecting back on me if you just think about like, who am I what do I want where is my life going. Like that's the who what where. In this situation, those are the fundamental answers you need to assess the problem.  Like, if I have a phone and I want to understand it, who, what, where, right, right, who made it, what is it, where do I find what I need. Okay, so same thing with your life too, but nobody asks you this in school nobody teaches you this in school. Nobody trains us to think about myself. My life. Who am I. What do I want. Where is my life going. These three fundamental questions are what you need to answer and be clear about for you to have a clear understanding and relationship with yourself.  And that the fact that we can't answer those questions is actually the fundamental root of your loneliness. It means you are not clear about this life that exists inside of you. That's why you try many things go many places, try to find many spiritual teachers try to read many books do all this this this but nothing is really satisfying. Keep looking, keep looking, keep looking, but it's because you don't know inside. Who am I, what do I want. Where is my life going.  Hardest questions to answer. Right, they're the hardest but they're actually very simple fundamental things that you should know about your life. So, even after this live. I want you to think about that. Who am I, what do I want. Where is my life going. That's where that real relationship to know who you are to know what this life is inside of you. That's where the real journey starts. It has nothing to do with age, you could be 119 years old and still not know the answers to these questions, or you could be a five year old and know exactly the answers to these questions, but that's where everyone should start. I suggest you start looking to resolve the loneliness that you feel inside, not anywhere else, it doesn't exist in a new partner, a new job, new house, new car has nothing to do with that. It's the answers the clear answers you have about those three questions. Yes. All right, so I just want to reiterate. So going forward from here. If you in the audience if you're still feeling lonely and depressed, and the environment around us is feeling more lonely more isolated more disconnected. Even in this pandemic, there's a good way to interpret and a bad way to interpret everything in our environment everything we experienced every person we meet. So how we create our emotions, based on our circumstances is totally up to us. It's totally up to you. So don't look for others to solve your problems is totally up to me. You. Follow your shoulders. Yeah, up to you. So it's up to me to decide how do I choose to train my brain. Yes, so the pandemic and Coronavirus has really helped us to think how we can do things differently and let go of old systems that we see don't really serve us or haven't served us well, and rethink what's important and how we should do things. You could really look at the pandemic that way if you try, you know, we see it met the media and everywhere puts it as like the most negative thing, but it has really helped a lot of people to slow down and look within and kind of contemplate these things. So in a strange way, the Coronavirus is a chance for us to create something new and better for ourselves and for others around us. And it has forced us to slow down and take care of ourselves and practice better hygiene like wash our hands like we didn't use to wash our hands this often or this well before I don't remember the last time I washed my hands this much. Or so really like made us focus more on ourselves and like taking care of ourselves. So some people can see the pandemic as and their situations as an opportunity for change. And some people can see it as just a hopeless destruction and just the most awful thing. They're both right, but which one do you choose to be on the side of. That's what you have to think about as well. And that's what can help you kind of get out of loneliness and get out of depression a little bit more. Yeah, I love what you said Gabby the last thing you said that whether you feel like the Coronavirus is an opportunity for change or something that's a means of hopeless destruction, whichever side you're on, they're both right. So it's no use fighting about who's right you guys are both right. It's just which one do you choose to believe. Right. So what do you guys think about that I want to hear your opinion so have you ever thought that maybe just maybe all the things that are happening are happening for good, despite what the media says about rising death tolls and no vaccine until later social distancing forever and all this blah blah blah blah blah no matter what the media says, have you thought about maybe the things that are happening are happening for good. And how can you take this dire situation that we are experiencing globally as humanity, or your own personal struggle whatever is happening in your microcosmos. How can we interpret that into a blessing in disguise. Right. Yes. So when I see some activity in the chat. Joanna says sadly it's quite late here in London so I have to go but it's been lovely to connect and I'll watch later on thank you take care everyone lots of love. Thank you Joanna for joining Joanna sleep well in London. Yes. Thanks everyone for saying thank you to Joanna and bye. I wanted to share a few, you know on our channel we have many resources for and many videos for so many of these topics related to mental health, especially loneliness depression and anxiety. So, on our channel, if you go to our main page, we have a playlist called 10 minute routines and in there Linda does these 10 minute routines for all kinds of topics, all kinds of symptoms physical emotional mental. So I would recommend this routine for everyone to find you know you can go on it and just search what kind of thing you're experiencing and find the videos for you so we have videos in there and then we have our life hacks playlist as well, which are brain hacks so it's you know helps to kind of understand the principle more of kind of what you're going through we have to have all these topics as well so I'll put the link of these two playlists for you in this chat so that you can check them out and you know try them out. Perry says 10 minute routines are the bomb. I think they're great Linda, you know, does them so clearly and so well. Thanks guys. Alright so what do you guys think about everything that we just said I don't know if Lamar is still here but he shared something earlier in the chat so I'm wondering Lamar are you still around. I see Perry still here Francine, Paul, thank you. And some others who are quietly watching in the background, Rand. But I'm going to read some of your comments that you guys said so Perry yes I find that we have to be more authentic and find what makes everyone most comfortable. Very true. I agree. Francine I love your time and routines I must look for the ones for mental. Yes, I just shared the link. Awesome. Thank you so much. Yeah, if anyone has anything else that they want to add to the discussion. Because this was meant for an open discussion about loneliness and depression, creating a safe space for us to talk about something that could be taboo in your normal outside circle something that's a little difficult to talk about with your other normal friends. If you need to vent please type and vent. This is your safe zone no judgment. We're all here to support each other so if you have something that you want to get in there last minute like actually I've been dealing with please feel free to type. Right. And if you have anything for more comments or anything I'm just going to say if you want to take back your brain a great way to promote your that you took back your brain is our t shirt. So on that Linda's wearing it's our super soft cotton unisex t shirt. It says take back your brain is I always say it's a great conversation starter because you walk anywhere with this shirt people are like what's this about and then you could tell them. I took back my brain and happy healthy and peaceful. And I'm working on my mental health and myself so you know you could talk about all those kinds of things with people so we'll share the link for that if that's something you'd like to promote and represent. Yes, I just put the link in the chat for you guys. If you want to rock a t shirt enjoying the brain gang. Yes, you can do so with this merch t shirt. Yes.  We do have this super chat function that I mentioned earlier in our live. It's under your chat where you type. It's a rectangle with a dollar sign. It's where you can love donations for us if you're making a few if you appreciate the work we're doing for youth mental health, loneliness, depression, anxiety. It's your way to kind of show us some love, but by no means you're not obliged to do so but just like putting it out there. If you want to show some extra support for our channel, then we welcome your love donations that we use to fund more videos on our channel. Yes. Yes. All right, so friends, let me see. So let's read some last minute comments. All right, so Perry says I find that we have to be more authentic and find what makes everyone most comfortable. Yes, so your true self you have to find your true self. And teach that you know connect to yourself and find when you answer those three questions that Linda mentioned, and it could be a long process it's not something that is really easy to find but when you answer those three questions you can really find what's true to you and your true self. Yes. And Francine said I love your 10 minute routines. I must look for the ones for mental. Thank you. Yes, we shared the links. And then one more comment Perry says I compare myself to others quite a bit but I'm working on it. You're not alone. You're not alone. We're all working on it. So if anyone has any last minute questions comments or concerns please leave them down below. Yes, Francine I see your comment you both are wonderful thank you so much xoxo xoxo back to you virtual xoxo. That's a great t shirt yes Francine go get one get one and where where one together with us during our next live we have a live every month. Yes and the best way to get notified by them is to subscribe to our newsletter on our website brain education TV calm. There is a place where it says sign up for newsletter so we send out emails every single week about our new videos new latest news about us. And then also our social media channels so our Facebook and Instagram we post about our upcoming lives there as well. Yes, or even better you can go to our homepage on YouTube YouTube comm slash brain education TV, click that bright red subscribe button. And then next to it there's a bell you click that bell and you will get notifications of each new video and each new live that we have so that's another great way to stay connected. I think that's it. That's it for today's discussion. Did you guys enjoy. Yes. Yeah, Francine it's every month. Yes, we do one every single month on relevant topics, you know things that people are going through so. Yeah, check us out it's usually like the second or third third second or third Tuesday of every month usually we do. Yes. Yeah. Alright everyone well then I think that's it for our live today. We're so excited and happy to see you guys here I hope next month you come back. Yes, we'll love you. Yeah we can get more discussions going and we'll send a send an email and social media and do more notifications later on in November when we come up with the topic for next month, but it'll probably be another like something like this on some other mental health topic. So it would be on the same similar lines of loneliness and depression but a different topic to discuss within mental health. Yes. All right, well thank you everyone so much we love you. We love you. Stay safe. Bye. Be happy. Yes.


workshop. I'm Peter, I'm going to be your host today. And we've got a wonderfully big group with us 111 people in the room so far. Some are joining for our online retreat weekend. I placed my future in the hands of God. And some are just here for the movie today. So welcome. And yeah, I can let you know just a little bit about the flow of the day for those who are new. So we will start with David and the movie. And then afterwards we're going to take a 10 minute break. Then we're going to have some breakout rooms where you can share any experiences or emotions that you had during the movie. Then we'll have a 45 minute break. And then we'll have a closing session with questions and answers with me. And so yeah, that's it. I'll pass it over to David now. Okay. Thank you, Pete. Thank you. Welcome everyone. Yeah. I see. Yeah, 115 in the room. And we have groups joining us today. We have Living Miracles Monastery. We've got our Tabula Rasa Mystery School. We have a group high with Anna and Ken over in Spain. We have, oh my gosh, there's the Micah, Amanda, there's a Living Course in Miracles group. We're just packed. I think that maybe we'll have up over 150 people joining us today to watch a movie. We're going to watch a movie together and we're going to call on the Holy Spirit, call on Jesus to bring us clarity, to bring us wisdom, to take us into right-minded perception and a true way of looking at the world. And again, the way we do this for the movies, this particular movie is part of our online retreat that we have every month. So we have that group of people that are here. They've just watched two lovely sessions yesterday and today begins the second day of sessions and tomorrow will be the third and final day. And then what we do every week is we simply have a poll of themes and we ask you to vote on the themes that are most relevant and most important to you. And then you vote on the themes and we see which themes are the most important. And then I go into prayer and let Jesus give us the movie. It's always kind of an interesting, it's a bit of a surprise to me every time because I never know what movie Jesus is going to pull out of the of the magician hat for us all to use. So I am kind of excited to watch how the poll goes and then I look at the poll and then receive a movie that will help us really grasp these themes and these ideas. And this is a fun way of waking up. It's a fun way of coming to a state of of enlightenment. And it's a fun way of experiencing the joy of heaven right here and right now. It's not heaven is not a future state. It's a present moment condition and state of mind. And that's what we're here for. We're here to remove all the blocks with Jesus and the Holy Spirit helping us every step of the way to clear the mirror of our mind and clear away all false aspects of consciousness that are blocking us from the light of truth. So for this week's movie, these are the themes that you all selected and this is what the movie will be used to help us understand. First of all, coming in number one and I should say coming in number one by a great distance. It was over 20, 20 votes more. I think a little bit less than 20 votes more. It's called deep in my core desire and calling for God deep in my core desire and calling for God because when your heart gets focused on God on waking up to God on forgiving all things that block the remembrance of God's love, anything that deepens that is precious. And it's always my prayer every week that these movies do that for you. That you come through these movies with a feeling of being uplifted of feeling huge gratitude and huge blessing and feeling closer to God and feeling that your own desire, the flame of your own desire for God has been fanned and expanded so that it's a burning flame. Burn in our hearts.  Burn away the illusions. Burn away the idols. Burn away the false perceptions that have veiled your beautiful light from our awareness. Coming in second was strengthen awareness of the happy nudges of spirit. We all get those happy nudges.  This is for you. This is for you. Follow this. You'll be happy. Just follow this and you'll be happy. We we want to strengthen our awareness of the happy nudges of spirit. The happy little guidances. The the little prompts that we get and we get a lot of them actually if we're honest. We get a lot of little nudges and prompts during the day. We want to be more aware of those. We really want to be aware if there's going to be a happy nudge. I want to be aware of it. I don't want to miss it. I don't want to miss a thing. Third one is drop the mask of a spiritual self concept. I mean this this whole world time and space is a world of concepts and and all of the great mystics and saints from Buddha and Jesus and all the way down all through the centuries have all said empty your mind of everything you think you think and think you know. Really it's saying empty your mind of concepts and Jesus says in the course that the last concept that you will hold on to is forgiveness. He says in heaven there is no such thing as forgiveness because in oneness and perfect pure love there is nothing to forgive. But he's saying that in terms of concepts that's the last concept that you'll ever hold is of a forgiven world and that's just simply seeing the false is false. It's not any kind of trying of a positive value or positive pronouncement of the world it's basically seeing the world is is Maya the world the world is fiction the world is fantasy the world is make believe it's a cartoon it's like a it's a fairy tale and before we wake up from the fairy tale Jesus is saying we have to have a happy dream you don't wake up from a grim dark nightmare into eternal life he's like no you're not going to get hurled from a from a dark dream into the light you're going to go from dark dreams to light dreams happy dreams and then you wake up from the happy dream so that's what we're going to open up to today is the happy dream and you have to drop the mask of a spiritual self concept today's movie is going to involve some ministers and sometimes when I even say the word minister every concept conjures up some feelings and interpretations and beliefs and some of you may say well I am a course in miracle student or I am a course in miracles teacher but I have absolutely no interest in becoming a minister well maybe you should check out workbook lesson 154 that Jesus gives you in the course which says I am among the ministers of God he's he's got another idea yes he does have an idea for us to be ministers of God he does have an idea for us to be miracle workers and he does have a metaphor of teacher of God and so as you wake up use the course and you use it as as a as a special function that you have it's just one form of the universal curriculum there are thousands of others but if you've been drawn to a course in miracles it's something that you you use and you take all the way towards your awakening experience your complete forgiveness experience Jesus tells us in the introduction that basically free will does not mean you can establish the curriculum it only means that you can decide what you want to take at a given time so the curriculum is already established you can't establish the curriculum it's already established and that curriculum i'll call it forgiveness this is the curriculum for everyone on earth and in all realms but forgiveness as described by the course is coming to accept the atonement which is really the realization that the separation never happened so you're not going to forgive something that's real you're you're just opening your mind to an experience that is a direct experience that the separation never happened and if the separation never happened then guilt never happened and if the separation never happened then fear actually never happened and pain and suffering never happened greed never happened we could say all upsetting emotions Jesus tells us you have but two emotions love and fear and fear is part of what never happened and so you can see this isn't about pointing out errors or this isn't about condemning and then forgiving this isn't about finding fault and then releasing the fault it's about coming to a state of mind which sees there was never anything to feel a blame or a fault about it was a complete mistake innocence is is real actually but innocence is not the opposite of guilt in this world the projection is that guilt and innocence are opposites but the innocence of god and the innocence of god's love transcends worldly innocent projections and worldly guilt projections it's so far the love is so far beyond this world that it's reality and that's what we're doing we're waking up to reality okay the next one is release shame around sexuality you know in this world depending on which philosophy you follow which religion you follow which ethical system you follow which morality you follow there's all kinds of different views around sexuality there's there are those which say that it's wrong there are those that that say that it's a pathway to god there but the key thing is to release the shame around the sexuality release the ego's interpretations of it is judgments of it and really start to realize that that the body is a learning device the body is neutral to the holy spirit the body is neither positive nor negative it's just a learning device if you were going to take a test at the university and the and you had a paper a multiple choice test in front of you and you said to the professor um oh i forgot i forgot to bring my pencil could i use a pencil oh yeah i'll loan you a pencil so you can finish the exam the body is very much like that pencil it's just a learning device for the mind and the the issue comes in is the ego made the body to be something more than just a neutral learning device the ego made the body to be your home it's it made the body to be something you could identify with and you could say this is me but it would be like saying this is me to that pencil you know it's a little bit of an exaggeration to identify with a learning device also jesus tells us in the course that learning devices cannot make mistakes so stop blaming your body for mistakes your body is not making mistakes it's just a neutral learning device for the mind and the mind that believes in the ego is the mistake and the mind that releases the ego is the correction has released it transcended the ego that's the correction but let's take the body off the hook uh we can't be blaming bodies because that would be like if you got a low score on the exam and saying that damn pencil let me down again i i should have scored higher but that damn pencil you know i i should have had a hundred and i got a 65 out of 100 because of that damn pencil you know it would be silly to blame the pencil for getting a low score on an exam and jesus is telling us it's just as silly to blame your body for anything now the ego wants to emphasize the body so the ego says no mistakes are in bodies bodies do make mistakes some of you who watch the academy awards the uskers you know it was kind of an interesting award show this year but uh some people would say well i watched the award show and it should have been a celebration but instead there was there was an attack that happened and uh one one body attacked another body in front of millions of people and it was shocking and what jesus would say is listen the ego belief system is the attack the attack is in your mind don't put it out on two bodies don't generate your hatred onto one body doing something to another body the attack is believing in the ego the attack is believing you're something that you're not you're the christ but if you believe you're an ego you block that christ awareness that christ light from your awareness you you push it out of mind don't put it out on form and blame the characters don't blame anybody don't blame hitler's body don't blame putin's body don't blame will smith's body don't blame your partner's body your cat's body your dog's body don't blame anybody it's the ego belief that is the mistake and so that's very important for us that's that will be helpful for us as we watched this movie today to really remember that releasing the shame around sexuality and the last one was overcoming the fear of communication well i think a lot of people equate the fear of communication with with words when i was much younger when i was a child and adolescent and even in the the 20s years of david i was i had a belief in being shy and i had a fear of communication but that was still a projection on to david of the fear of the communication of the holy spirit and jesus it's not a fear of words of speaking words or of having words spoken to you it's a fear of guidance it's the fear of the the guidance of the holy spirit because the ego is the fear and the ego doesn't want you your mind to hear the holy spirit because if you do listen and follow the holy spirit the ego will vanish and it wants to exist but if you listen to the holy spirit the ego will vanish because it never really had a reality and and that's what the holy spirit shows that god is real love is real christ is real and spirit is reality and there is nothing else that there is no ego it's a it's a mistaken belief but it hides itself by denial by being pushed into the unconscious aspect of the mind where the mind's not aware of it it hides in the unconscious mind and it also hides through projection where it seems like the mistakes are in the bodies the errors are in the bodies the errors are in the projected world but they aren't nobody has ever made a mistake and nobody nobody has ever done anything right either there really is nobody out there that's the teaching of the chorus you're you have a perceptual hallucination and you're dreaming a world that god didn't create and it doesn't even exist you know you're hallucinating you're hallucinating a world but you think the hallucinations are real and you're reacting and responding to the hallucinations you see that's the problem that's what the chorus is teaching us you is to teach us to stop reacting to the hallucinations can you do that without a miracle no you need a miracle you need a miracle to see this world as a hallucination you need you need the atonement the holy spirit says no problem i i can do that in an instant if you're ready and yet the holy spirit knows when the mind is terrified you will not wake up a terrified mind in an instant because it's too direct it's too traumatic it would be like a child having a nightmare and the parent comes in turns on the bright lights and shakes the child and wakes the child directly out of the nightmare jesus says well you know if you try to do that the chances are the child would perceive the bright light as a danger or the shaking body as if a monster paw was shaking the body because if it's in the middle of a nightmare it will perceive the helper as a monster too so jesus knows that we have to really take it gently and the holy spirit will wake us up gently gently softly wake us back up to heaven the holy spirit is so so gentle so what jesus has done this week which is pretty rare i show last week i showed star trek episodes i show all kinds of movies i show quantum physics movies quite a lot i i call them quantum movies i show a wide wide range of movies and every once in a while there's a movie that has a little bit of christian symbols in it like the movie just like heaven had to just a little sprinkling little sprinkles of christian symbols not not today where jesus is bringing out a movie that has got a lot of christian symbols in where we're going to see a movie when we look at placing the future in the hands of god we are actually going to see a movie that will help us using overtly christian symbols today it's it's a movie that's based on events that happened mostly uh in the 1970s and the 1980s although there's some there's some flashbacks to some some earlier times but basically what we're going to see is going to see two people a man and a woman that are called together to get married to be ministers to be traveling ministers and then to be public ministers in the sense of using satellite and using broadcasting and it will be a movie that shows us a very large broadcasting ministry and all of the temptations that come from anything like that whenever you have a large anything a large corporation a large country a large ministry there will be temptations very strong temptations from the ego and one of those is pride basically the ego uses the body for three main uses and those three uses are plot pride and pleasure and attack so those are the three main uses that the ego has for the body to protect itself remember the body's part of a projection and the ego uses the projection to keep itself hidden in the mind because the ego doesn't want you discovering it and discovering its hiding place and exposing it because once you expose the ego with the Holy Spirit and Jesus you you see that you cannot believe in it anymore you you see it's rather foolish to believe in a death wish it's foolish to believe in darkness it's foolish to believe in in fear and guilt and shame these are not natural emotions these are not emotions that have anything to do with God these are ego emotions and they don't feel good they don't feel good at all they feel they feel very bad so the movie that we're going to watch today is called the eyes of Tammy Faye the eyes of Tammy Faye Tammy Faye Baker was a tele-evangelist and with her husband Jim Baker they had a tele-evangelist ministry starting in the 1970s and rolling on into the 80s until the wheels fell off until until everything went sour I mean really really bad and but you know this is just the way things go on planet earth you know some of you have heard of the Roman Empire the rise of the Roman Empire the crest of the Roman Empire and the fall of the Roman Empire same thing with Napoleon you know Napoleon rose rose to power thought he would conquer Europe and then he met some defeat at Waterloo and then that was the fall of of the Napoleon attempts to overtake the world and we've seen it with different civilizations we saw the expanse of the of the British Empire it grew and grew and grew and grew and then there was people like Gandhi who who said no this isn't right and then it started to shrink and shrink shrink and shrink Adolf Hitler the Nazis it it seemed to come rise up it grew and strengthen power and then it shrink and it it disappeared in in that form but the ego is underneath all of these rising falling empires and what we're going to look at today is a is a ministry a Christian ministry that that rises and grows from from a husband and wife as ministers traveling around the United States certain states and using puppets and and words and verses from the Bible to teach the teachings of Jesus it started off with just going from church to church and then with the advent of we'll say technology satellite technology it grew to a point where when they were doing their their ministry services 20 million people from 50 countries were were joining in with them how's that for an audience imagine if you got you had your own zoom channel and your channel started to grow and finally it went to 50 countries and and had 20 million viewers every week now of itself that's nothing but what i will say is the ego will try to trip you up to keep you from experiencing the true teachings of Jesus and the true teachings of forgiveness through its distractions and one of those distractions is fame you know fame is a is a version of pride if if your spirit if you're the i am presence you cannot be famous or infamous because there's no one to be famous too or no one to be infamous to you see because spirit is just one it's just there's one spirit but if you identify with the body the ego will try to use pride and fame as a way to keep you from knowing who you are as the living christ and that's why jesus over the centuries has become quite famous but jesus was so identified with the i am presence prior to time you know that's why he the holy spirit spoke through the the mouth of jesus and said before abraham was i am it also the holy spirit spoke through jesus and said i am the way the truth in the life no one comes to the father but through me and then the holy spirit spoke through the body of jesus and said i and the father are one that was just the universal spirit speaking it wasn't a man it was just the spirit using the body as a teaching learning device to teach that the spirit is one and god is love that's the whole teaching god is love and who you are is love too pure love that's that's it that's the that's the whole message right there it's not a complicated theology it's just that love is real but but love is real and it is the only reality there is no reality but love that's why the Beatles even there's some channels for spirit all you need is love all you need is love all you need is love love is all you need there it is love is all there is that's why the Beatles were singing that they could sing it with confidence because it's true that's why it's everybody likes that song because it's real it's a real idea now i thought i would read you a little bit uh just a little a few words from chapter four from jesus because um jesus starts out his 11th paragraph in here in chapter four um and basically he says jesus starts out his sentence that says it cannot be emphasized too often when jesus starts a sentence to me and says it cannot be emphasized too often i'm all ears oh if jesus christ starts a sentence with it cannot be emphasized too often oh you got my full attention here i want to know what what is cannot be emphasized too often jesus says it cannot be emphasized too often that correcting perception is merely a temporary expedient what you mean the whole course in miracles is aimed at at correcting perception and this is just a temporary expedient wow that puts everything into perspective he's like saying yet don't don't be concerned about careers don't be concerned about families don't be concerned about your success really don't put any attention to anything except correcting perception with the holy spirit and then he says he's emphasizing it's just a temporary expedient now he's got my interest i'm like well okay then what's what's the end game if correcting my perception is just a temporary expedient wow that's that puts a lot of emphasis on that but it's also temporary then he goes on to say it's meaning correcting perception it is necessary only because misperception is a block to knowledge knowing god while accurate perception is a stepping stone toward it oh that's why i'm training my mind so i can come to a stepping stone towards heaven i want to come to the gates of heaven in my mind and to do that i have to correct my perception or more correctly allow my perception to be corrected by the holy spirit that's the better way of saying it and he's just saying listen this is the preliminaries this is the preliminaries we're dealing with a course in miracles here and correcting perception because this is temporary preliminaries and here it is the whole value of right perception lies in the inevitable realization that all perception is unnecessary unnecessary only jesus could get away from talking about the entire cosmos of time and space the entire linear cosmos of perception that's right the black holes are unnecessary the stars are unnecessary the planets are unnecessary here we go the people are unnecessary well that puts a new view on relationship he's like what the people are unnecessary oh yeah the mountains are unnecessary the butterflies are unnecessary the trees are unnecessary is that actually the word you want to use jesus yes i'll say it again the sentence the whole value of right perception lies in the inevitable realization that all perception is unnecessary this removes the block entirely okay now that is a different perspective you know he's not even calling perception an illusion he's going one more step beyond an illusion and he's saying unnecessary oh my unnecessary okay now we're getting some good stuff from jesus now we're getting really the the full of the full picture he says you may ask how this is possible as long as you appear to be living in this world that is a reasonable question you must be careful however that you really understand it who is the you who are living in this world spirit is immortal and immortality is a constant state it is as true now as it ever was or ever will be because it implies no change at all so let's look at this perception is unnecessary and yet while we believe in it we have to go from fragmented distorted perception to heal and unified perception maybe remember last week i i showed two star trek episode my hands flew up when we realized there's only one dream that's going to simplify things if there's only one dream that helps i don't have to worry about all the separate dreams anymore i just have to start to allow my mind to see the holistic picture of the one dream that the holy spirit sees and to see that i am the dreamer of that dream that's what forgiveness truly is now since i'm showing a movie that has overt christian symbols i don't i mean i oftentimes don't talk a lot about christianity i mentioned it in passing uh little david went to church and little david was a christian and um sometimes people ask me about the bible and i will address specific questions about the bible because the bible is is another symbol another learning device in the world and and can you use the bible to reach god of course what do you think mother tricia did what do you think st francis did well even jesus used the scriptures the torah is part of his awakening so the bible is just a tool that can be used for spiritual awakening now there's some aspects a lot of aspects of the bible that i would say are mythology um and i know because i was in university for 10 years and i studied philosophy and i i realized in philosophy one of the big question was how did this all happen in the first place what started the cosmos what what is this big bang thing that the scientists were talking about it seemed very different from what i read in my bible in genesis in the bible it says god created the heavens and the earth and that means by assumption that god created uh adam and eve the first two humans and this story is called creationism and god it took god um basically six days and then on the seventh day he rested he was apparently god was tired after after doing all this creating i'd be tired too if i created the whole cosmos and adam and eve there you go i just formed the anatomies of adam and eve and i'm about here i'll put a snake in there i'm going to put a tree in the garden of evening oh where's my uh hammock i need to sleep i need to rest that's that's a big job especially creating adam and eve man and woman wow it's tough that's wow that's gonna that's that's a mess that's a that's a an issue ready to happen i need to go back into the hammock after i did that one no listen let's start to make the corrections there's some interesting things in in genesis that i think i want to point out because i'm not going to dismiss the bible and i'm not going to dismiss any book i'll talk a little bit about charles darwin and and evolution too so i'm going to be good to both science and religion here i'm not going to let either one off the hook i'm going after both both of them today darwin and the bible genesis so what is what is good about um the first book of the bible genesis i'm just going to work focus on the first first book well in the first book of the bible jesus points this out in his course he says um the bible says that adam fell asleep and nowhere else in the bible does it said that adam woke up so once again the bible's got it right it's in the bible adam fell asleep and nowhere else in the bible did it say that adam woke up i would say when jesus you know when he when he was in the river jordan and he was baptized by john the baptist and this dove came down from the sky and landed on jesus's head and then this voice from the the sky the heavens said this is my beloved son and who i am well pleased that's the wake up adam woke up adam woke up there listen you don't get a voice like that saying this is my beloved son and whom i'm well pleased that doesn't happen every day at least you don't hear it it's there but you don't hear it so that part was good in genesis the other thing i like about genesis is it it says um it says that don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil right don't you like that because why because that tree if it's good and evil it's duality and anybody who studied metaphysics know that the only metaphysics that makes sense is it's all one there there is no there is nothing of relative value and duality because duality is of the ego two is not one you see two is a projection of a split mind and so that tree the knowledge of good and evil is a projection of the split in the mind it's a projection of the fall from grace it's a projection remember that's not a reality that's a belief you didn't actually fall from grace you just believed you did and that belief is projected onto that tree so even that tree is a projection that's that's got to be the first the first projection you know even though adam and eve seem to already be there and then they found this tree adam and eve are a projection that's a projection of the split mind there's not two sexes there's not even one sex there weren't even unicorns in heaven listen that's just all projection so those are the highlights of genesis now what does that mean well it just means that that the Course in Miracles is correcting a lot of mythology and the bible as well as science and as well as just about every book that you ever are going to read is is full of mythology what do i mean by mythology what is a myth a myth is something that's not true okay so most of the bible is mythology we shouldn't be offended by that because we just learned from Jesus that all perception is unnecessary so i'm keeping in that context you see for Jesus it's like please let's not get hung up on which which people are better than others or which eras are better than others whether the ice age was better than the the dinosaur age you know please all perception is unnecessary and we need to realize that all duality in the world in the cosmos is a projection of the split mind the belief that you can separate from God the belief that you have spirit still in you the holy spirit and the ego jesus said that's not comfortable that you'll never be able to be peaceful as long as you have a split mind that believes in love and fear so what does that say about christianity uh this this will not be just a critique on christianity because i could do the same with the Bhagavad Gita i could do the same with the Quran i could do the same with uh with any philosophy or or spirituality or religion but but for now i'm going to talk christianity the bible and the genesis is teaching that god created the heavens and the earth well the first part is true and we're not talking heavens like celestial time space realms we're talking heaven is absolute oneness absolute love absolute perfect love that's the realm of god even the trinity in the bible the father son the holy ghost they all live in heaven that that's where their home is is the holy spirit doesn't have a second home i know some of you in in uh canada maybe united states scandinavia europe you know you see you have a summer home now the holy spirit doesn't have a summer home holy spirit and christ and god all are spirit and they all live in heaven and heaven is all that there is there really is nothing else perception is unnecessary because god didn't create it so the big mistake is that the the belief that god created anything to do with time and space god didn't create time and space god didn't create earth god didn't create men and women god didn't make no little green apple you know no god doesn't make little green apples even god doesn't create form spirit creates spirit christ has creations but they're purely spirit god has creations and it's purely spirit creation means spirit there is no creation you may think i'm a creative artist i create songs i create paintings i create spaces i'm an architect i create buildings no no no nobody's creating bodies don't create bodies don't create children oh my gosh what does that mean about sex and procreation nothing nothing perception is unnecessary talk about wiping out procreation procreation is not important remembering god is important procreation nada not important so if you bring this to practicality basically jesus is saying the holy spirit uses the body as a communication device to smile through laugh through hug through be gentle through bring comfort through through communicating through the body the ego uses the body for pride for pleasure and for attack that's why we have personality disorders pride that's why we have addictions anybody deal with addictions that's the realm of pleasures run amok the ego run amok with addictions it doesn't know where to stop it's set it up that way and attack is war it doesn't matter whether it's will smith smacking a comedian on on the academy awards or whether it's russia invading ukraine or anything else that you would interpret as an attack i mean if your cat does a do-do on your living room carpet and you perceive that as an attack then that's the same thing attack is from the ego i would just say your your pretty little kitty is giving you a present and and you can enjoy that present or not and if you don't that's an ego judgment if you don't enjoy it if you don't go over and go oh you sweetie you gave me another present you know if you if you have a reaction to that poop on your carpet uh smashed into your carpet then that is an interpretation and that's an attack what jesus is going to show us is there is no attack because why god didn't create attack and only what god creates is real so it's it's an ego interpretation that brings upset it's not what seems to happen in form it's the ego interpretation that brings the upset so as we move on i'm going to talk about another thing that is a big theme in the bible and that is sin and a lot of times when you a christian comes to you and they'll say please accept jesus christ as your lord savior and please pray with me the sinners prayer i'm going to talk a little bit about sin you cannot sin you cannot sin because why because god doesn't know of sin and god is the creator of reality so to believe in sin is to believe that there is no god if if you profess a belief in the reality of sin you are literally saying there is no god why because god didn't create sin why would god create sin why would pure love create sin you know you have to start to follow the divine logic of this why would pure love create sin so this is the big misinterpretation of the of the teachings of the bible the interpretation is that sin is real and that means punishment is real and that means that sacrifice is real you see it sets in motion a whole set of dominoes of things that simply stated are not true why because god didn't create them and of course in miracles he says nothing real can be threatened nothing unreal exists herein lies the peace of god that's in the introduction of a course of miracles so if you apply the introduction of a course of miracles to the bible you'll see that everything that is interpreted as sin being real is a mistake so what does Jesus tell us in the course well he tells us when you feel guilty remember that the ego has indeed violated the laws of god but you have not let's read that one again when you feel guilty remember that the ego has has indeed violated the laws of god but you have not jesus says leave the quote sins of the ego to me that is what atonement is for leave the sins of the ego to me he's jesus is saying let me correct that let the holy spirit do that that's the holy spirits function it's not your personal function to point out sin to try to to correct sin you don't know what it is because you don't know who you are and you don't know what it is either so jesus is saying leave that to me please please leave the correction to me connect with me pray with me and leave the correction to me now the problem with the the genesis story is from the get-go it's it's starting a story where god creates this time-space world which god didn't god did not create linear time and then there's god creates adam and eve and and then they eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and that is a problem and the the one that gets them to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a snake okay let's stop projecting the entire fall of grace onto a snake this little skinny little creatures cute little creature is now taking the blame it's that's called scapegoating this is called scapegoating when you put the entire fall of grace onto a snake that's a bad name that's giving a snake a bad name and remember all perception is unnecessary so why why blame the snake if if it's all unnecessary if it's all fabricated if it's all hallucination why blame this snake so what we have a talking snake in the garden of eden and i don't know whether he has fangs or not he wouldn't even have to have fangs he's could be a cute like a disney snake like a sweetie i've seen some really cute snakes in disney and and maybe he's green maybe he's brown i don't know but what i'm saying is it's a talking snake and they say that god forbid you from eating from that tree now what happens when you tell a child don't go in the cookie jar has anybody had children you know what happens when you tell a child here you can have anything in the kitchen but i'm going out to run some errands and just see that cookie jar up there high up there i put it high and i i'm telling you now you can do any you can have anything you want from the fridge but don't go into the cookie jar when you leave the house where is the first place that the child goes before you've left the driveway they're in the cookie jar now this is why in the bible god would never forbid adam and eve from that tree first of all god didn't create that tree of good and evil second of all the garden of Eden is just a symbol paradise is is love is in the mind has anybody here tried to find paradise on earth some of us have tried we know that's not working very well oh i made it to hawaii what's that 1500 degree shiny bright oh that's lava in my that's there's 1500 degree lava in my paradise oh my god there goes my house there goes my my garage poof my car poof no no there's no paradise on earth paradise is a state of mind and there is no duality in that however if you believe that god created linear time and you believe that that humans turn their back on god in a real way they basically disobeyed god in a real way then that would be the belief in sin the only problem with that is god is pure love and you can't go against god's will because it's pure pure love and oneness there is no opposite to it you can't really disobey god that's why sin has no reality because god didn't create it however this is what jesus does tell us he says son of god you have not sinned but you have been much mistaken i'll read that sentence again because this is kind of important if it's coming from jesus son of god you have not sinned but you have been much mistaken yet this can be corrected and god will help you knowing that you could not sin against him that last part is important knowing you could not sin against him who that's coming from jesus you cannot sin against god you cannot sin against a being that is pure love you don't have the power to change god's will you don't have the power to disturb eternity you don't have the power to interrupt eternal life that's important you see now that's the correct interpretation that it's just a mistake and it's a mistake in belief believing you're something not you're not and then an entire world arises from that mistaken belief which is the projection of of error to form and now jesus is saying don't try to interpret this form just follow me i'll tell you all your instructions internally i'll give you all your guidance stay with me you're safe that's for you ermah stay with me and you're safe jesus is saying if you stay with me and you follow my guidance you you are invulnerable you basically uh you can't get sick and you can't die if you stay with me and and that makes sense because jesus is the one who transcended the error of of sickness and death he said be of good cheer i've overcome the world and then he says in the course when i arose you were with me he's saying we're the same one we are the same one even though appearances of the ego would try to tell us we're different we're the same one we're the same son of god we're the same christ so i tell you all of this because we're going into a an overtly christian movie and and many times people will even write to me they say david why don't you get back to showing regular movies please don't show me another christian movie i've had enough i'm fed up with these christian movies no no there's no problem with these christian movies they're it's just the same as godzilla or you know anything else it's it's just an opportunity for forgiveness king kong opportunity for forgiveness world war two movie world war one movie opportunity for forgiveness people say i i think there's better movies and worse movies no no they're all the same every movie is actually the same uh it's the same opportunity for forgiveness and and so we're going to see see two kind of charming sweet people tammy fey and jim baker um they're going to meet in a bible class in a scripture class and they're going to feel a connection and they're going to decide to get married and be ministers and before you know it they have a a little bit of an audience with them in 50 countries and 20 million viewers every single week that's that would be kind of a large ministry uh there's another there's also other uh ministers in this movie and as usual the ego will try to make things competitive people trying to steal other people's ministries steal their congregation um does this movie address sexuality oh yeah oh yeah these these ministers are going to have to face everything charges of greed charges of bribery charges of secrets but just put yourself in their shoes imagine that you had a ministry of 50 countries and 20 million viewers every week and imagine that that they started sending you money imagine you you had so much money sometimes the people would send you mink mink coats they would send you more than money they'd send you diamond rings imagine there's a room in your church that's just loaded with things the world calls variable because they love Jesus and they want to support spreading the teachings of Jesus the only thing I would say is that that the spreading of the good news is is something that seems to occur in time and space but actually communication is with the Holy Spirit in your mind that's the communication you want to extend that's the communication that you want to keep the channel so clear and open because it's your own mind learning to receive the directions and the instructions of the Holy Spirit the world is just perception and all it can do is reflect what's going on in your mind so in this case it's going to be reflecting a very very growing large ministry all this does though is it presents opportunities for forgiveness lots of them and for some of you who have have not experienced yourself in kind of a public way then all I can say is it invites opportunities for forgiveness that you never even imagined could be there let me use as an example probably some years ago not too long ago but years ago I I was in Mexico and I showed the movie Whitney which is the movie of Whitney Houston and here's a young woman who who grew up in the Christian church singing gospel music who adored her her mother and father who adored singing about Jesus and Whitney seemed to have an extraordinary voice and then as she grew older her mother actually had an extraordinary voice too but she started singing and singing some pop songs and it became famous and then she got married to Bobby Brown who seemed to have a pretty serious drug issue she got involved in the drugs and it went from a story of a young woman who had a tremendous gift and a tremendous love of Jesus and the ego turned it from a glorious miraculous state of mind that was going through deep healing into what the world would call tragedy an absolute tragedy suicide drug addiction everything the world would say is is a tragedy and what we have to realize is that it's not nothing in form brings out about it's just when you have a resistance to the Holy Spirit and you deny that voice in your mind and you listen to that other voice the ego it will take you it will take you down it's interesting Denzel Washington the actor he he had an experience to change his life I think he was in a hair salon and a woman in the hair salon said I have a prophecy for you Denzel young Denzel you're going to be traveling the world and speaking to millions of people and and become a very public figure and I think Denzel had just failed something in school and he got this little paper prophecy at a hairdress in salon and he opened his mind to get into acting and we know the rest he was actually there at the academy awards when Will Smith smacked Chris Rock and basically Denzel comforted Will Smith by saying after after the fact that he had done it Denzel said just when you reach your highest point that's when the devil will come for you so there was some wisdom there that's the comforting words that Denzel told Will Smith after he had smacked Chris Rock when you reached your highest point in terms of world world recognition of your first Oscar fame fortune money all the things that the ego wants to prop up the personality self with as if you can have a great personality self instead of just an unreal one and your real self being the Christ that's when the devil will flip from the the fame to the downfall you see the Rome Roman Empire build build build rip it down Nazi Germany build build build rip it down you know it we've seen it over and over and we've seen it with human beings they seem to be very successful they have everything that the world could offer and then it all falls apart and it turns into a tragedy Marilyn Monroe fame sex appeal movies famous husbands and suicide you see see how it goes that there is no there is no truth to perception as Jesus tells us perception is unnecessary because it's a block to the light and your true self is the light so like like Judy Collins said I've looked at life from both sides now from win and lose and still somehow it's life's illusions I recall I really don't know life at all you know thank you Judy thank you Judy we need to listen to that song we need to remember that song every moment of every day don't be so sure you know what success is in this world don't be so sure you know what failure is in this world because Jesus is telling us remember that all perception is unnecessary it's temporary even the the miracle is a temporary expedient to remember God but it's just a phase even your miracle working some of you may feel I haven't even begun my miracle working but I would say just be glad when you start to experience it but don't think it's anything important because all perception is unnecessary you know this is just the preliminary people say what's the difference between fact and fiction well God is a fact love is a fact Christ is a fact and the world is the fiction it is the fantasy it is the the the make believe it is illusion it is Maya you can't really have good Maya and bad Maya you can't have good illusions bad illusions you may think that certain events in your life are good things but I'll assure you there are no good or bad things it's but thinking makes it so if you're thinking ego thoughts you're perceiving bad things and you may even call them good things but they aren't really good because God the I am presence prior to time is where the goodness is that's where the Christ is that's where God is that's where the Holy Spirit resides but the things of time are are not something that that you can evaluate and I'll come full circle as we go into the movie the body is just a learning device so you can call your body beautiful if you want you can call it ugly you can call your body smart or you can call your body dumb you can call your body healthy or you can call your body sick none of those relate to truth there is no such thing as a sick body just like there is no such thing as a healthy body wow that's going to take a lot of worry off my mind because if I was trying to have a healthy body I was still playing the egos game you see how can something that isn't real be sick or healthy you know just put the words together I have a sick unreality or I have a healthy unreality oh let's try that with another word I have a sick unreal or I have a healthy unreal you see the words don't even fit together that's like tell again it's like telling your pencil wow you fit you ruined my exam I would have had a hundred and then you owe evil pencil got me a 65 you evil thing you know we laugh at that I see you laugh at Laura you're having a good laugh at that let's just be you the same thing with the body too now let's realize how how ridiculous it is to project these meanings from the ego on to the body and then blame the body oh my body should be more intelligent oh my personality should be more outgoing oh oh my partner should be better looking oh my partner should have more money please Jesus is like are you are you ready to laugh the angels are laughing I hope you're ready to laugh with the angels because the angels are like going oh so let's roll the film we're going to have we're going to follow Tammy Fay and we're going to follow Jim and we're going to follow through their adventures and with everything I've just told you I hope you can can see this movie as a comedy because I I do I see it as a comedy but I really see all of them as comedies but but actually you know you can start to see the world in a beautiful way when you realize that you can't really judge it you can't really make a judgment on it because the bodies aren't making the mistakes it's the mind that believes in the ego is where the mistake occurs it's like like Jesus said before you try to get the spec out of your brother's eyes Jesus said 2000 years ago remove the log or the beam from your own he was teaching perception 2000 years ago before Freud before the word ego before the word perception Jesus was the master psychologist teaching psychology 2000 years ago before psychology was even invented and that's a good example of it right there so that's what we're going to practice today with Jim Jim and Tammy so enjoy the movie I will come in and pop in during the movie to to share some commentary and hope you enjoy the ride this is a beautiful ride beautiful ride