How to Apply A Course in Miracles in Business

By John J. Murphy, Unity Magazine

We can’t take Spirit out of the human experience. It’s time to put spirituality into the business experience

My experience with A Course in Miracles began in 2008. As an entrepreneur, business owner, and international management consultant, I invested countless hours reading, researching, and absorbing “best practices” around the world.

Yet despite my best efforts, I had never heard of ACIM.

Looking back, it appears I was still in separation mode, seeing business and spiritual teachings as two distinct bodies of work. In the 10 business books I had written, there was only a hint of mystical knowledge.

Growing up in a Catholic family, I was programmed to believe in a very specific religious paradigm, or “box,” that I didn’t even know I was in. It wasn’t until many years later that my curiosity and intuition led me to other spiritual teachings and insights.

Then, in the early 2000s, I started hearing references to ACIM by multiple spiritual teachers I admired and respected. I remember thinking, Hmm, I wonder what this course is all about? Not long after, an invitation to ACIM appeared in my mail. No coincidence, I thought to myself. This is synchronicity. I immediately purchased the course and completed it within one year—and it was a year I will never forget.

Receiving the Message

As a backdrop, I was halfway through writing a book in the year 2000 when my father became very ill and passed away 11 months later. I abandoned that book project, never to return. For the next nine years, I focused more on my consulting work and speaking engagements. I felt no inspiration to write.

Then in 2009, soon after completing ACIM, I was visited by a “presence” that commanded me to start writing again. It was a Saturday morning and I was in a small hotel room in France. I was a bit shocked and confused at first, but the message was clear. I was to start writing again.

My mind began racing. What was I to write about? How would I find the time? I was very busy with consulting projects and I didn’t want to start something I wouldn’t finish. I had already done that.

Despite my resistance, I finally opened my laptop and surrendered. “You want me to write?” I questioned. “Then tell me what to write.”

One year later, the book I channeled and self-published in 2009, Beyond Doubt: Four Steps to Inner Peace, was awarded “Editor’s Choice: Most Inspirational Book of the Year” by Allbooks Review, a commercial book review service based in Toronto, Canada.

Surrendering the Ego

I had just experienced a shift in perception, described in ACIM as a “miracle.” I now viewed the world in a very different way. My mind had opened, and I had surrendered my attachment to the ego thought system.

I no longer experienced fear and doubt. I no longer viewed everything and everyone as separate. I let go of drama, attack, and defense. I now saw a clear connection between spiritual teachings and highly effective leadership. The two bodies of work are not separate.

The very word inspiration comes from being “in Spirit”—fearless and free. In fact, two years later I discovered that Toyota was using Beyond Doubt as a leadership development tool for senseis (master teachers). Wow! I thought. Maybe there truly is a need to integrate spirituality and business.

Moving forward, my business expanded and grew more than 400 percent within the next two years. I was led to write several more spiritual business books, including Miracle Minded Manager: A Modern-Day Parable About How to Apply A Course in Miracles in Business.

The book shares a fictionalized account of an executive who learns to use ACIM ideas to challenge old paradigms that no longer work. He shifts his mindset from ego-driven, fear-based thoughts and beliefs to more Spirit-driven, love-based thoughts. Being willing to see things differently in this way helps him overcome fear, eliminate stress, and lead a more peaceful life—both professionally and personally.

True empowerment is recognizing that we can choose to tune in to a different frequency by changing our minds, just like we can change a radio dial.

How to Understand the Work-Spirit Balance

One of the most powerful tools he learns is that whatever vibration we put out, we attract more of, so when we complain, we attract more to complain about. Expressing appreciation and gratitude, on the other hand, brings us more to be grateful for.

True empowerment is recognizing that we can choose to tune in to a different frequency by changing our minds, just like we can change a radio dial.

Furthermore, the executive learns that we can’t give to others what we don’t have ourselves, so the best way to bring about a more peaceful world is for each of us personally to be more at peace. When we embody peace, others learn from our demonstration.

Since learning and integrating ACIM in my business and life, I now approach each day expecting miracles. I call this flow. It is what we experience when we are aligned with Source Energy and we let go of resistance and doubt.

In other words, we get out of our own way. We recognize that we have all the power we need available to us every minute of every day. It is simply channeling this power into meaningful goals with positive intention that leads to our success.

How Miracle-Minded Thinking Translates Into Business Life

In business, flow translates into cash flow, inventory flow, creativity flow, imagination, innovation, expansion, and growth. We are all meant to flow.

After all, when we are aligned with our purpose in life, a sacred gift we have been given to give to others, we cannot help but feel inspiration and passion. This is why we are here: to give for the betterment of the world.

Of course, the ego will challenge this kind of thinking. Miracles in management? No way! It is my will, not Thy Will, that must be done. We live in a dualistic world, a world of us-them, win-lose, right-wrong. Such dualism tells us that we need to protect ourselves by building walls and defenses.

It also asks us, How can we love and trust people who see things differently?

So stop and ask yourself: Is this a good time for people in business and government to start thinking in terms of unity, harmony, balance, peace, and mutual prosperity?