The power of Love is unlimited. It is capable of literally anything in the effort to transform fear and lovelessness into love. Such transformations can often seem miraculous. They are not really miracles; they are the natural order of the Universe, of Divine Love manifested. Miracles are the process whereby the invisible and eternal become visible and tangible.
Miracles are the intersection of our human perception and Spiritual Reality. Our five senses suggest to us that we seem to be nothing more than human beings with a mind, a bunch of emotions, and perhaps even, a soul, all contained in a physical body. In fact, we are in origin and source spiritual beings experiencing, for the moment, a state of duality. As we come to understand the nature of this duality, and see that our humanness is only a temporary state we have chosen to inhabit for our own enlightenment, we are able to manifest the limitlessness of Spirit.
Because of this, miracles are not really miracles as such; they are not miraculous in the accepted use of the word. Most people see miracles as events where the normal laws of physics are set aside to allow a result or consequence that is always unusual, unpredictable, unfathomable and inexplicable. It is generally thought that miracles are not possible in normal circumstances, and certainly not at our own behest.
The reality, however, is that miracles are available to us all, at all times, once we understand the spiritual laws that underpin them. We are all capable of manifesting miracles because all it involves is an understanding of who We Really Are.
Miracles, in this context, comprise the process whereby the time/space continuum is collapsed. But this is not so miraculous when one understands the unreality of linear time and space. Quantum physicists have proven that space and time are not objective, but are always and only the subjective extension of the observer, such that neither space nor linear time can exist without the observer. The observer and the observed – space and time – are inextricably linked. Further, how and what we experience of time and space is directly determined by our thoughts and beliefs about them.
In the same way that a knowledge and understanding of medical science is not necessary for the effective use of medicine, one does not need to understand how and why miracles occur in order for them to be made manifest in our lives. As with medicine, all we need is some level of knowledge, and perhaps faith, that they are real and possible, which then leads to a willingness to open our minds to the possibilities.
We are all capable of manifesting the miracles of health, abundance and peaceful relationships. In addition, it is possible for us to bypass the immediate need for the understanding of the spiritual and theoretical underpinnings of such miracles, although such understanding is ultimately possible.
The key is love, both for ourselves and for others. Love is the source of all miracles, and miracles will occur once we understand the true nature of Love. Divine Love is power and, because Love is our essence, we are very powerful beings. But this power cannot be harnessed and used to create miracles until we know and live this wisdom.
In the disintegration of the time/space continuum, events that our theories of physics would deem impossible become not only possible but natural and real, and time becomes irrelevant. We can see this, and demonstrate it once we change our perception of time and space. That is all a miracle really is: a shift in perception, as defined in A Course in Miracles, where it says: ‘the miracle entails a sudden shift from horizontal to vertical perception (2).’
It’s an interesting phenomenon that when we think of time, movement, and progress, we nearly always think of it on a horizontal axis: from ‘here’, to ‘there,’ along a line from the eye outward. We don’t think of time as taking us ‘upward,’ or vertically, even in image, let alone in reality.
The miracle, in collapsing time, reduces the need for time to determine how and when things can happen. Instead of our limited notions of time being the critical factor, we begin to see that it is our own thoughts that determine our experience and reality.
Every miracle rests on the notion of the Oneness of all Life. It is love and forgiveness (for self and others) that enables our Oneness to manifest. As Oneness is the ultimate Reality, everything in the Universe works in support of this, hence the possibility, and even the necessity, of miracles. Thus the key to all miracles is Love.
Miracles are happening all the time, whether we are aware of it or not, and whether we are prepared to acknowledge them as such. That is one reason why it is never worth engaging in complicated arguments or debates about their reality, origin or nature. Truth, and its concomitant miracles, exists whether It is acknowledged or not. Not only does Truth exist, It continues to transform our lives, moving us ever closer to the point where are willing and able to see It and stand witness to It.
We are guided gently, though inexorably, to enlightenment, and this is one of the miracles that we are talking about. This process is perfect, because the result is sure. We will all, sooner or later, achieve enlightenment. Miracles continuously occur to make this happen, even though most of us are largely oblivious to the fact.
Once we open our mind to the possibility, in small but undeniable ways, the miracles become more and more obvious. And as always with faith, once you take the first step of acceptance, then the doors of possibility are flung wide open, and experience becomes transformed.
One experience where I relied on the suspension of the normal rules of physics occurred about ten years ago. My husband, Ian, and I were holidaying in Myanmar (previously Burma). Ian was the sort of guy who wanted to see every historical site possible whenever he travelled. He approached travel in the same way he ran his daily life, which involved lists – lots of lists! And every item on the list had to be ticked off. There are actually over 2000 pagodas and temples in Bagan (previously Pagan) and every single one of them was on Ian’s list on the day we hired bicycles to tour the spectacular ruins of the old city.
Before setting out we had been told by the locals that once it starts to rain there it doesn’t stop. So looking at the overcast skies and the light misty rain that had been falling all morning, it never occurred to us that the skies would clear. But clear they did, and within only about an hour after we had left the hotel. We did not have any sunscreen with us to protect us from what became relentless sunshine.
Can you actually see 2000 temples in a day on a bicycle? The question was irrelevant for Ian. He would countenance nothing less than a complete and honest attempt to achieve such a feat, no matter how difficult. I learned early on that loud though my voice is – and I have school report cards to verify that it is unusually so – it is nothing to that which internally drove Ian. So in this improbable endeavour I followed compliantly, and cycled my little heart out.
As we ticked off temple after temple, the sun, and we, just got hotter. I was born with the pale, Anglo skin that has its origins in the northern hemisphere centuries ago, when cloudy skies that threatened rain two days out of three provided an effective screen between the pale people and the sun.
Now take that skin, put it on a boat to the Antipodes and let it bake for fifty years. That’s what my skin looks like now. The good news is that my skin is not so pale anymore, and therefore a little more resistant to the fierce Australian rays. In fact, it is well on the way to becoming permanently brown – I’m just waiting for those last few freckles to join up!
But my skin is still vulnerable to eight hours’ exposure to full sunshine. The laws of physics dictated that this would normally have resulted in serious sunburn, and I would usually have relied on sunscreen to prevent this. But what happens in this situation, when through nobody’s fault, I did not have any sunscreen?
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