FACIM Daily Q&A: Tourette’s Syndrome
Dr. Kenneth Wapnick and the FACIM Electronic Outreach Program have a collection of 1384 answers to questions sent in from Course students over a period of years. Each day we will post a new question and answer with the kind permission of Ken Wapnick.
Q #1041: My 8-year-old granddaughter has Tourette’s Syndrome. I feel I am in her life to help her, but I’m not sure how. I am new to A Course in Miracles. I know the answer to my quest is in there somewhere! Can you speed up the process for me? How do you help a child with a debilitating disorder overcome her fears when you find it hard enough to face your own? I think she is here to teach as well as to learn. And can you also address the issue of the Indigo Children. Are they real or just another figment of our imagination?
A: First and foremost, just be a normal grandmother, doing what loving, caring grandmothers do for their grandchildren. Along with that, the Course can be helpful to you in terms of looking within to the content in your mind — there is nothing in the Course about behavior. You put your finger on the core of the problem by recognizing that you cannot be of genuine help to anyone when you yourself are in a state of fear. If you are afraid for another person, you are seeing that person and yourself as an ego — as a vulnerable, weak, victimized body. That is the temptation practically all of us succumb to, and with good reason, for that is why there is a world in the first place — so that we would be blinded by form (bodies) and forget all about content (our minds) (T.22.III.6:7). So the first step in your thinking about this is to ask for help to correct your own distorted perception of yourself and your granddaughter.
In this sense, she is your teacher, because she is reflecting back to you — through your reactions to her — what is going on in your own mind, the thought system you are using to interpret the situation. Feeling fearful, which is quite normal, is telling you that you are looking at the situation through your ego’s eyes. This course is teaching you that fear is a choice, and that you can make a different choice: to see through Jesus’ eyes, or the Holy Spirit’s. So to begin with, you just want to acknowledge that you are following the ego’s interpretation of the situation — that this is a tragedy and that your granddaughter is an innocent victim. Again, these are normal perceptions in this world.
When you switch to Jesus as your inner teacher, you will begin to realize that you can be peaceful in the face of what appears to be sad misfortune. Most people find this terribly difficult to accept, because — having identified with the ego thought system — we instinctively feel that inner peace is dependent on external circumstances. That is totally false. It is the big lie of the ego that what God created can be changed. Jesus repeats in different ways throughout the Course the essential thought that “ I am as God created me. His Son can suffer nothing. And I am His Son…. You are as God created you, and so is every living thing you look upon, regardless of the images you see” (T.31.VIII.5:2,3,4; 6:1). You can thus use this situation in your life as a means of learning this for yourself, and in so doing, you will be conveying the same sought-for message to all who come into your presence — without ever uttering a word about it. Your peaceful presence will remind them that they, too, can make the same choice.
We cannot see our own or anyone else’s full Atonement path, so we should be extremely cautious about judging situations as tragic, and people as innocent victims. Although we do not know this, it could be that your granddaughter (as a mind) is using this physical condition as a way of learning that the body is a projection and does not define her. If that is the case, then that is her means of getting beyond her ego and remembering her true Identity; therefore, from that point of view it would not be a tragedy at all. However, this does not mean that you and her family should not pursue medical treatment, etc., but in your mind, you would be seeing the situation from a different perspective. When you can set your fear aside — if just for an instant — the love in your right mind would flow through you and guide you in what to say or do, which could be nothing, other than being a non-judgmental, peaceful presence.
With regard to your question about the Indigo Children who are reported to be enlightened beings that have come to the planet to help us… This is best thought of in the same context as above — that is, on the level of mind we are all one. Everyone is here to teach and to learn. There may be some extremes on the scale, as reflected in your question, but in truth everyone is here to both teach and learn.
