Experiencing Peace in a World of Chaos

Paul Goudsmit

Edited from the lecture given in Utrecht on 18 October 2026. 

There is a great deal happening in the world. I hear people say that things are getting worse, that the world is more chaotic and dangerous than it used to be. I see it differently. I think much of what we see now was already there. The difference is that things which were hidden are becoming visible.

In itself, I see that as a good development. Once something becomes visible, we can look at it. For me, that is also the work of A Course in Miracles: looking at what is there and making room for healing. Being willing to see.

My intention in this lecture is to offer an opportunity to experience peace amid everything that is happening. That comes with an invitation I often give at the beginning of our workshops. If you have come simply to feel better, this may not be the right place for you. If you are willing to feel everything and experience peace within it, then we can begin.

That distinction matters. What we feel does not have to disappear before we can become willing to look at it.

What does it bring up in you?

Think of something happening in the world that catches your attention. Which story occupies your mind? Then ask yourself: what do I feel about it?

It may be confusing or frightening. There may be a great deal of sadness. Stay with that feeling for a moment. We are often so occupied with the story that we barely pause to notice what it brings up in us. Yet that is where the inquiry begins.

The stories change. But perhaps you recognise the same feeling returning beneath different stories. Somewhere, that feeling is connected with an idea. What am I telling myself about what I see? And what am I telling myself about me?

You can close your eyes for a moment, if you wish. Participate only as far as you are willing. There is no pressure. Give yourself room to have the feelings that are there. Take a breath. Come back. The point is to see what reveals itself, without having to produce an immediate answer.

For me, what I see in the world is connected with what happens within me. I see a reflection. When I am willing to explore that connection and take responsibility for it, change becomes possible. As long as everything remains entirely outside me, far away, the same pattern can keep repeating.

In this way, what happens in the world can also become an invitation: what can I discover about myself here?

An inheritance of ideas

Many of the ideas we hold about ourselves and the world did not begin yesterday. They have been handed down, generation after generation. They are an inheritance.

We carry something from our family system, our village, our culture and our country. As men and women, too, we have inherited ideas about who we are and how we are supposed to live. We did not choose to receive this inheritance. It was given to us. But now that it is ours, we can examine what we do with it.

Do we keep it going? Or are we willing to let what needs healing be revealed?

For me, the Course begins with our connectedness. We are one. There is no completely separate outside world with which we have nothing to do. That may be easy enough to say as a theory. The practical question is what it means when I notice that an event affects me.

What have I told myself about it? Beneath all those different stories, we often find just a few familiar beliefs: I am not good enough. I do not matter. I am powerless. Other people are dangerous. The world is not safe.

We each have our own story, but at that level the differences are often smaller than we imagine. The story is personal; the conclusion is familiar to many of us.

How am I using my relationship with the world?

Now the inquiry becomes more direct. Am I using what happens to confirm something I already believe about myself?

This can happen in my relationship with the world, but also in my personal relationships and with my children. Am I examining a belief, or am I continually keeping it alive?

I might see, for example: I have used my relationship with the world to confirm my belief that I do not matter. Or that I am powerless. Again and again, the story supplies evidence for that conclusion.

Recognising this can bring resistance. Of course it can. Perhaps I have been attached to that idea for a very long time. It has become familiar. Nobody is going to take it away from me. The question is simply whether I am willing to allow the possibility that I have been mistaken.

Try saying it aloud. Name the belief you are confirming through your relationship with the world. Then add: “And I have been mistaken.”

Perhaps you cannot believe that yet. In that case, you can also say: “I hope I have been mistaken.”

That, too, opens a possibility. I do not have to force myself into a new belief immediately. But if I am willing to question my old conclusion, something else can become visible.

Peace is what we are

The Course speaks of an innocent, beautiful, powerful being of love. For me, that points to the truth about ourselves. About everyone, including me. In that truth there is no difference.

Peace is what we are. Yet I can use the world and the stories it tells me to forget that.

This is why I find lesson five of A Course in Miracles so important: I am never upset for the reason I think. Notice the word “never”. It does not say “almost always”, with an exception for this story or that one.

It invites me to look beyond my first explanation. Which idea about myself is being confirmed here once again? What lies beneath my reaction?

The only thing that needs constant confirmation is a lie. The truth stands on its own. It does not need my evidence in order to be true.

This inquiry therefore asks me to take responsibility for what I do with the story. Am I using it to make an untrue belief about myself and others seem true again? Or can I use it to remember what we are?

You are the peace. You are its guardian and its bearer. Nobody else can make the choice to look at something differently for you.

From understanding to experience

For me, A Course in Miracles is connected with the search we also encounter in other spiritual traditions. Oneness, love and truth appear again and again. Ultimately, however, this is about an experience. An explanation can point towards something; the insight has to come from within.

There is an inner recognition when you encounter something that resonates with the love and innocence you are. That goes deeper than merely accepting a belief. This is what I want to invite you towards.

Place your feet on the floor. Close your eyes, if you wish. Can you find the place within you that is peace? Where everything is quiet?

From there, return to what you have seen. The feeling that arose. The idea beneath it. The way you used a story to confirm that idea. Are you willing to see it differently?

This is also a shared question. We are connected. When we take responsibility for the ideas we support and the intention with which we live, we participate in a collective movement.

We can continue to support a pattern. Or we can become willing to change it. That choice is ours, again and again.