The Fifty Miracle Principles
of A Course in Miracles
by Kenneth Wapnick
Principle 8
Miracles are healing because they supply a lack; they are performed by those who temporarily
have more for those who temporarily have less.
Principle 8 introduces the word "lack," which is a word that A Course in Miracles uses from time to time and is part of the concept of the "scarcity principle." This is that aspect of our guilt that teaches us that there is something missing in us, or there is something scarce. Of course, the ego never tells us that what is missing is God. God is excluded from the ego system, and that is what the Course means by the "scarcity principle." Lack is just the derivative of that. The belief that there is something lacking comes from the ego belief or perception of the world, which is a world of separation, This is now talking about how the miracle becomes the correction for that belief in lack. The miracle teaches us that we are not separate from each other, that we are really one with each other. That, of course, becomes a reflection of the wholeness of Christ. The miracle removes the burden of guilt that keeps us from remembering the abundance of Christ.
The principle states: "Miracles are healing because they supply a lack." This is another indication of how the Course is not precise with its language. Basically, as it says elsewhere, you do not "supply a lack," because that really means that there is a lack that you then fill up, which would be making the lack real. The more correct way of stating it, which is really how the Course speaks of it later on, is that it corrects the misperception of lack. That is what the miracle does.
"They are performed by those who temporarily have more for those who temporarily have less" means that the miracle is done by someone who is in his right mind, as opposed to the person who temporarily has less who is in his wrong mind. That is really what those words mean. The word "temporarily" is important here. A passage in the text talks about how healing occurs when the healer is without fear (text, p. 635; T-27.V.2:7-14). However, this does not mean that the healer is always without fear; only in the instant when he chooses to heal instead of to attack. We go back and forth all the time. The pamphlet on psychotherapy says that the therapist should be one or two steps ahead of his patient (p. 7).* As any therapist knows, this is not always the case, and it certainly does not mean miles ahead. Once again, "miracle" here is used in the sense of something that someone does: it is performed. That is the popular use of the word "miracle."
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*"Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process and Practice"
(Foundation for Inner Peace, 1976; This pamphlet now included in the official Third Edition of ACIM).