We need to know that as people—the everyday man, woman or child—we are individually profound. In Never Forget To Laugh I had occasion to quote two gifted psychics who had read for Bill during his lifetime. In addition, I spoke with several others in 2006 and 2007 out of curiosity to see what they might pick up about him. During a reading with the first one, I mentioned that I was commencing research for writing a biography about a deceased friend of mine, Bill, well-known in some circles, and might she have anything to say about that. After making some relevant and accurate comments, she said, “I’m hearing – did this Bill have anything to do with typing? He is showing me this old-fashioned typewriter and when it gets down to the end you push the carriage over and then it goes back. I want to say he’s written a lot of things or come up with lots of ideas. He seems to be gathering notes together. . . . I feel joy with him, I feel happy with him. And I feel as if this is something he would like very much to have done. He will help you very, very much with it.” If there is any symbol within Course circles associated with Bill, it would certainly be the typewriter on which the original notes were typed so I was, needless to say, impressed and reassured with the few right-on comments she made about him. Six months after that conversation, I spoke with another psychic/healer, one of the most gifted in my personal experience (who chooses to remain anonymous) and asked her if she could tune into my friend, Bill, as I was writing a book about him. The following are a few short excerpts of her much longer “tuning-in.” “Your friend is very happy to speak with you. Okay, what I am hearing, Carol, is that he is at some sort of precipice for his development and growth, a moving on. So what I’m hearing is that the timing of this call is very good. . . . They're saying to remember him because when you who are yet part of the physical world remember him, you bring him to the physical world. It’s part of how he gets here, like a bloodhound tracing the scent. Your remembering him helps him touch base in the physical world, helps him move about if that makes any sense. I don’t know any other words than that. You help transport him to the people he needs to reach, as well as to be with you, too.” “Bill wants you to remember all of the living examples you can, like the stories you were just telling. He didn’t talk the talk necessarily, he lived it. He did very ordinary things and yet he had an extraordinary ability to touch other people, whether it was building a sand castle at the beach or whatever. How he did that, what that looked like - you and he can “talk” that back and forth. The concern would be that it would 'pedestalize' him because he was so extraordinary. The reader might avoid doing work, thinking, 'Well shoot, I’m not anywhere near that smart or clever. This kind of insight, this kind of understanding must come to only very top brains, or something.' . . . Any person can have a sense that he/she is extraordinary, too.” “He's saying that humor is very important, stress the humor. God is a funny guy. In other words, not to take our lives, the story that we make up about our lives, so seriously. One of the things that the guys (her “guides”) had to work hard on teaching me is that I don’t really have it until I can laugh at myself. Once I can see how terribly funny something was—whatever it was—then I have it, so he wants you to stress that.” “He’s (Bill’s) also saying, Carol, that it’s time for this whole power thing to be broken in some way; it has to come down from the mountain. We pretend the power belongs to a special few - the pope, the president, and corporate entities. We need to know that as people—the everyday man, woman or child—we are individually profound. And the everyday person comes with their his/her own mission, too. He wants you to get that message to folks. It's a big message but I feel pretty strongly that you guys can talk just fine, interacting across the aisle, so to speak. . . . In other words, you’re very receptive to him, which is great. . . . I just saw kind of like two magnetic things touched and okay, good. The contract is made and the deal is signed. Your intention and his are in sync so there should be no problem.” It will be left to the reader to decide if our “interacting across the aisle” worked! As in his earthly life, Bill is nothing if not tenacious. In many ways he seemed to attempt to make his presence and his help known. In late October 2008, while driving to an appointment, I was focusing on him, feeling his presence deeply, and receiving his message that I did not have to rely on my memory alone, or that of others, because he was remembering for me. It was unsolicited but once again reassuring and I was feeling very happy about this writing enterprise. Within less than a minute of feeling his words, I glanced over to the lane of traffic to my right and my attention was riveted on the car just ahead sporting an out-of-state license plate that read WNT-65xx. I didn't focus on the last two digits as I was stunned at the confirmation - William Newton Thetford who died at age sixty-five and the Course was born in 1965. By this time, it would be very difficult for me to adopt any position other than that Bill's imprimatur is laid on his biography. As Shakespeare famously said in Hamlet, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

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* Since 1979 Carol Howe has presented highly interactive seminars, workshops, retreats, classes, and lectures on universal spiritual principles and their practical application -- for the general public, health-related and other special interest groups, and corporations - nationally and internationally. Please visit Carol's website to view her Books, CDs and Tapes.   After the publication of her book, NEVER FORGET TO LAUGH: Personal Recollections of Bill Thetford, Co-Scribe of A Course in Miracles, Carol began to share additional material regarding Bill. This material is currently being shared on her Facebook Group and will eventually be available on her website. http://www.carolhowe.com

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