Spirits, Ghosts, and Psychics: How A Course in Miracles Understands These Experiences

A Course in Miracles is radically simple in its teaching, even though its implications are vast. It does not ask us to decorate the dream with better symbols, more comforting stories, or more interesting mysteries. It asks us to wake up.

Because of this, questions often arise around spiritual phenomena: spirits, ghosts, psychic experiences, mediums, intuitive visions, and encounters that seem to point to realities beyond the physical world. Are these real? Are they meaningful? Are they helpful? And how do they fit into the Course’s understanding of reality?

The Course does not deny that people have these experiences. But it does gently and consistently reframe what they mean.

The World as a Dream

A Course in Miracles begins with a premise that is both confronting and liberating: this world is not ultimate reality. It is a projection of the mind, a dream made by the belief in separation. Bodies, time, space, birth, death—these are all part of that dream.

Within a dream, many things can happen.

Some dreams are frightening. Some are beautiful. Some seem mystical. Some seem prophetic. Some seem to show us invisible realms, invisible beings, or hidden knowledge. But they are still happening within the dream.

From the Course’s perspective, seeing a ghost or having a psychic vision is not fundamentally different from dreaming at night that you are flying or speaking to someone who has died. The form is different, but the level is the same: it is still perception, and perception itself is part of the dream.

Spirits and Ghosts: More Dream Figures

The Course teaches that there is no death. But it also teaches that bodies are not alive in the way we think they are. Life is of the mind and of Spirit, not of form.

So what are ghosts or spirits, from this perspective?

They are still images in the dream. They are symbols the mind uses. They may seem more subtle, less dense, or more mysterious than physical bodies, but they are still forms. And all forms belong to the same level of illusion.

This does not mean that people are “making it up” in a dismissive sense. It means the mind is extremely creative in how it presents the dream. It can show us solid bodies, or it can show us translucent ones. It can show us past scenes, future scenes, heavenly scenes, or frightening scenes. None of these are the Truth. They are variations of the same story.

The Course is not interested in cataloging the contents of the dream. It is interested in helping us wake up from it.

Psychic Abilities and Special Perception

Psychic experiences often feel special. They can involve knowing things you “shouldn’t” know, sensing energies, seeing images, or receiving impressions that seem to come from beyond normal perception.

From the Course’s point of view, this is still perception.

It may be more subtle perception, or more refined perception, but it is still within the realm of time, symbols, and interpretation. It does not come from knowledge, which is the domain of Truth. It comes from the perceptual mind, which is the domain of the dream.

The ego loves specialness, and spiritual specialness is one of its favourite disguises. Being “more intuitive,” “more sensitive,” or “more connected to invisible realms” can quietly become another identity, another way to be different, another way to reinforce the sense of being a separate self with special abilities.

The Course is always undoing this, not by attacking the experience, but by gently asking: does this lead you to peace? Does it lead you to forgiveness? Does it lead you away from fear and specialness and toward the recognition of shared innocence?

If not, then no matter how interesting or impressive it seems, it is not serving the purpose of awakening.

The Holy Spirit vs. Psychic Information

A very important distinction in A Course in Miracles is between guidance and information.

The Holy Spirit does not deal in fortune-telling, predictions, or hidden facts about the world. The Holy Spirit is concerned only with healing the mind. Guidance is always practical, simple, and aimed at removing fear and increasing peace. It helps you forgive, choose again, and return to love.

Psychic information, on the other hand, is still about the story of the dream: what might happen, what someone is thinking, what energy is present, what past or future scenes look like. Even when it seems accurate, it does not address the root problem—the belief in separation.

The Course would say: you do not need better information about the dream. You need to wake up from it.

Are These Things “Bad” or “Wrong”?

The Course does not moralize. It does not say these experiences are sinful, forbidden, or dangerous in themselves. It simply puts them in their proper place.

They are neutral at best. They have no power to save you, and no power to condemn you. Their only real “meaning” is the purpose you give them.

If they become a distraction, a source of identity, or a way to avoid doing the deeper work of forgiveness, then they are being used by the ego. If they are seen lightly, without investment, and without making them into something special, they will naturally lose their importance.

The Course is always leading us away from fascination with phenomena and back to the simple question: am I willing to choose peace instead of this?

True Spiritual Vision

The Course does speak of vision—but not the vision of forms, auras, spirits, or other realms.

True vision is the vision of innocence. It is the recognition that nothing real can be threatened, and nothing unreal exists. It is seeing your brother not as a body, not as a personality, not as a story—but as yourself.

This vision does not show you more images. It shows you past images.

And in that seeing, the need for all mystical scenery, all hidden worlds, and all special perceptions gently falls away.

The Simplicity of the Path

A Course in Miracles is not a path of exploring higher and higher levels of the dream. It is a path of letting the dream go.

You are not here to become a better interpreter of symbols. You are here to remember that you are not a symbol at all.

Whatever experiences come and go—ordinary or extraordinary—the practice remains the same: forgive, choose peace, and let the Holy Spirit reinterpret everything for you.

Because in the end, awakening is not about seeing more.

It is about seeing everything through the lens of love.