As Course students it can be easy to conclude that sickness stems from unevolved thoughts and a healthy body signifies a spiritually healthy person. But what if that’s wrong? What if seeing “sickness“ as a sign of spiritual unhealthiness is itself a sign of spiritual unhealthiness? “Sickness“ is always very personal, always symbolic, and always a deliberately chosen wake-up call of some sort and a learning opportunity. As such, aren’t sickness, trauma, and disasters of every kind really outward signs of a courageously evolving soul deliberately choosing to face difficult situations in order to move faster and farther toward awakening?
Yet we wonder, why would a healthy soul be sick? Consider this:
“Accept the one illusion that proclaims there is no condemnation in God’s Son and Heaven is remembered instantly…In this vision of the Son, so brief that not an instant stands between this single sight and timelessness itself, you see the vision of yourself, and then you disappear forever into God.” Lesson 198, 10-12
The very fact that we are “here” and haven’t yet “disappeared” proclaims our spiritual unhealthiness and that we are in “Wake Up Bootcamp.” Sickness, disasters, drama and trauma are signs of a soul’s courageously healthy decision to double down and get the most learning out of bootcamp.
For example, my mom wasted away from dementia which, while considered terrible in the physical world, actually provided a bootcamp experience for her soul to work through serious awakening issues like control, autonomy, and physical “doing.“ Seeing her dementia as tragedy fails to recognize the opportunity it presented and that her very strong soul chose it. Does that mean we should not alleviate or “cure” sickness? No, but it does mean we need to remember that the biggest sickness is the negative judgment we attach to it.
Yet, it seems we would rather bang around independently in the dark, confident in our ability to make decisions as we head for the edge of unseen and unknown cliffs.
Forrest Gump called it. Stupid is as stupid does.