I am moved to write about Nina Covington's unfulfilled search for healing from the trauma she feels when she remembers being sexually "abused" when eleven. I say unfulfilled because when she recalls those events Nina is still brought to tears.
I believe Nina is confused in believing that posing nude in a non-sexual way has given her the power to take back her body and, more importantly, her sense of self-worth. Nina believes, as many of us do, that there is an unseen force, another will than our own, that allows us to be victims. And once a victim, forever a victim. So entrenched is this belief that to even question it is to be thought insane, so when I state that everything we experience in life is our own choice and generated from within our own mind, I hope you can read on and consider that realizing this is true, is where true healing lies.
Nina's hope that her decision to model nude will not be judged and that her body's form, revealed, will not be viewed sexually is, in a sense, an attack on those that are aroused by the body. How much freer for her to suspend judgement entirely and realize there is no good, there is no bad, there is only life.
In short, "to heal is to make whole" and found in the realization that we "are" our experience.
I will leave you with this passage from "Love I" from the book "Journey beyond Words".
Realize that all of Creation, every aspect, whether it be what you call physical, or what you call spiritual, is the same, and is a dance. It is a dance of Oneness. It is a dance of all aspects of Creation, the part of the Self you are calling you, the part of yourself you are calling the animals, the part of yourself you are calling the stars, and the part of your Self you are calling the other humans.
And for them, the others, whom you imagine to be separate from yourself, it is the same. For they are your Self. And it is all a magnificent dance, a magnificent symphony of cooperation and sharing, and Oneness. For without the full cooperation (Note even the word "cooperation" implies separation) of all other aspects of the universe, you could not experience it as you do.
Insofar as you believe that any of it does something different from that which you have desired, what you experience cannot be real love. That belief is the primary source of all this illusion. That belief is the only source of your tears, your pain, your sickness, your grief, your worry, your anger and your doubt.
Then, for you, love shall become the knowing that you have long since BECOME, that you long since ARE, everything you see.
Imagine something which you do not like. Then realize it is only an aspect of your Self. Realize also that there is no goodness, nor badness, in you. That aspect which you perceive to be something you do not like is but an aspect of your Self needing an experience, within the realm of your freedom and your joy.
As you accept that aspect of your Self you do not like, allowing it its freedom and joy, and likewise accept, in its freedom and joy, the aspect of your Self which you call yourself, you shall realize that the two are one and the same.
Then how can you hate? How can you be angry? How can you not forgive? Recall, forgiveness is the purpose of this Course. And your forgiveness is the realization that YOU ARE YOUR WORLD. You cannot label anything as bad, or as good, that you simply cannot judge at all.
For if you label one thing as bad, and another as good, then what you have done is split your Self. And how can you live, if you have been split asunder by your own imaginings? When you talk about anger, or fear, or hatred, that is, indeed, what you are doing. You are trying to imagine that somehow you have been able to rend asunder that which is One, that which is you...
So realize that God, in loving you, has become you. You are nothing more than the expansion of God. And then your love and your forgiveness shall become the same. For they are your awareness that your entire world is but the expansion of your Self, which is really the expansion of God.
I believe Nina is confused in believing that posing nude in a non-sexual way has given her the power to take back her body and, more importantly, her sense of self-worth. Nina believes, as many of us do, that there is an unseen force, another will than our own, that allows us to be victims. And once a victim, forever a victim. So entrenched is this belief that to even question it is to be thought insane, so when I state that everything we experience in life is our own choice and generated from within our own mind, I hope you can read on and consider that realizing this is true, is where true healing lies.
Nina's hope that her decision to model nude will not be judged and that her body's form, revealed, will not be viewed sexually is, in a sense, an attack on those that are aroused by the body. How much freer for her to suspend judgement entirely and realize there is no good, there is no bad, there is only life.
In short, "to heal is to make whole" and found in the realization that we "are" our experience.
I will leave you with this passage from "Love I" from the book "Journey beyond Words".
Realize that all of Creation, every aspect, whether it be what you call physical, or what you call spiritual, is the same, and is a dance. It is a dance of Oneness. It is a dance of all aspects of Creation, the part of the Self you are calling you, the part of yourself you are calling the animals, the part of yourself you are calling the stars, and the part of your Self you are calling the other humans.
And for them, the others, whom you imagine to be separate from yourself, it is the same. For they are your Self. And it is all a magnificent dance, a magnificent symphony of cooperation and sharing, and Oneness. For without the full cooperation (Note even the word "cooperation" implies separation) of all other aspects of the universe, you could not experience it as you do.
Insofar as you believe that any of it does something different from that which you have desired, what you experience cannot be real love. That belief is the primary source of all this illusion. That belief is the only source of your tears, your pain, your sickness, your grief, your worry, your anger and your doubt.
Then, for you, love shall become the knowing that you have long since BECOME, that you long since ARE, everything you see.
Imagine something which you do not like. Then realize it is only an aspect of your Self. Realize also that there is no goodness, nor badness, in you. That aspect which you perceive to be something you do not like is but an aspect of your Self needing an experience, within the realm of your freedom and your joy.
As you accept that aspect of your Self you do not like, allowing it its freedom and joy, and likewise accept, in its freedom and joy, the aspect of your Self which you call yourself, you shall realize that the two are one and the same.
Then how can you hate? How can you be angry? How can you not forgive? Recall, forgiveness is the purpose of this Course. And your forgiveness is the realization that YOU ARE YOUR WORLD. You cannot label anything as bad, or as good, that you simply cannot judge at all.
For if you label one thing as bad, and another as good, then what you have done is split your Self. And how can you live, if you have been split asunder by your own imaginings? When you talk about anger, or fear, or hatred, that is, indeed, what you are doing. You are trying to imagine that somehow you have been able to rend asunder that which is One, that which is you...
So realize that God, in loving you, has become you. You are nothing more than the expansion of God. And then your love and your forgiveness shall become the same. For they are your awareness that your entire world is but the expansion of your Self, which is really the expansion of God.
