Eleven

You have been told not to make error real, and the way to do this is very simple. If you *want* to believe in error, you would *have* to make it real because it is not true. But truth is real in its own right, and to believe in truth, *you do not have to do anything*. Understand that you do not respond to stimuli, but to stimuli *as you interpret them.* Your interpretation thus becomes the justification for the response. That is why analyzing the motives of others is hazardous to *you*. If you decide that someone is really trying to attack you or desert you or enslave you, you will respond *as if* he had actually done so, because you have made his error *real* to you. To interpret error is to give it power, and having done this, you *will* overlook truth. The analysis of ego-motivation is very complicated, very obscuring, and *never* without the risk of your own ego-involvement. The whole process represents a clear-cut attempt to demonstrate your *own* ability to understand what you perceive. This is shown by the fact that you react to your interpretations *as if* they were correct and control your reactions behaviorally but not emotionally. This is quite evidently a mental split in which you have attacked the integrity of your mind and pitted one level within it against another.

There is but one interpretation of all motivation that makes any sense. And because it is the Holy Spirit's judgment, it requires no effort at all on your part. Every loving thought is true. Everything else is an appeal for healing and help. That is what it is, regardless of the form it takes. Can anyone be justified in responding with anger to a plea for help? No response can be appropriate except the willingness to give it to him, for this and *only* this is what he is asking for. Offer him anything else, and you are assuming the right to attack his reality by interpreting it as *you* see fit. Perhaps the danger of this to your own mind is not yet fully apparent to you, but this by no means signifies that it is not perfectly clear. If you maintain that an appeal for help is something else, you will *react* to something else, and your response will be inappropriate to reality as *it* is but *not* to your perception of it. This is poor reality testing by definition. There is nothing to prevent you from recognizing *all* calls for help as exactly what they are except your own perceived *need* to attack. It is only *this* that makes you willing to engage in endless “battles” with reality in which you *deny* the reality of the need for healing by making it unreal. You would not do this except for your *unwillingness* to perceive reality, which you withhold from *yourself*. It is surely good advice to tell you not to judge what you do not understand. No one with a personal investment is a reliable witness, for truth to him has become what he *wants* it to be. If you are unwilling to perceive an appeal for help as what it *is*, it is because you are unwilling to *give* help *and to receive it*. The analysis of the ego's “real” motivation is the modern equivalent of the inquisition, for in both a brother's errors are “uncovered” and he is then attacked *for his own good*. What can this be *but* projection? For *his* errors lay in the minds of his interpreters, for which they punished *him*. Whenever you fail to recognize a call for help, you are *refusing* help. Would you maintain that you do not *need* it? Yet this *is* what you are maintaining when you refuse to recognize a brother's appeal, for only by *answering* his appeal can *you* be helped. Deny him your help, and you will not perceive God's answer to *you*. The Holy Spirit does not need your help in interpreting motivation, but you *do* need *His.* Only *appreciation* is an appropriate response to your brother. Gratitude is due him for both his loving thoughts and his appeals for help, for both are capable of bringing love into *your* awareness if you perceive them truly. And *all* your sense of strain comes from your attempts *not* to do just this. How simple, then, is God's plan for salvation. There is but *one* response to reality, for reality evokes no conflict at all. There is but *one* Teacher of reality, Who understands what it *is.* He does not change His Mind about reality because *reality* does not change. Although *your* interpretations of reality are meaningless in your divided state, His remain consistently true. He *gives* them to you because they are *for* you. Do not attempt to “help” a brother in *your* way, for you cannot help yourselves. But hear his call for the help of God, and you will recognize your *own* need for the Father. Your interpretations of your brother's need is your interpretation of *yours*. By *giving* help you are *asking* for it, and if you perceive but one need in yourself, you *will* be healed. For you will recognize God's answer as you want it to be, and if you want it in truth, it will be truly yours. Every appeal you answer in the name of Christ brings the remembrance of your Father closer to *your* awareness. For the sake of *your* need, then, hear every call for help as what it is, so God can answer *you*. By applying the Holy Spirit's interpretation of the reactions of others more and more consistently, you will gain an increasing awareness that *His* criteria are equally applicable to *you*. For to *recognize* fear is not enough to escape from it, although the recognition is necessary to demonstrate the need for escape. The Holy Spirit must still *translate* it into truth. If you were *left* with the fear, having recognized it, you would have taken a step *away* from reality, not *towards* it. Yet we have repeatedly emphasized the need to recognize fear and face it *without* disguise as a crucial step in the undoing of the ego. Consider how well the Holy Spirit's interpretation of the motives of others will serve you then. Having taught you to accept only loving thoughts in others and to regard everything else as an appeal for help, He has taught you that *fear* is an appeal for help. This is what recognizing it *really* means. If you do not *protect* it, *He* will reinterpret it. That is the ultimate value *to you* in learning to perceive attack as a call for love. We have learned surely that fear and attack are inevitably associated. If *only* attack produces fear and if you see attack as the call for help that it *is*, the unreality of fear *must* dawn upon you. For fear *is* a call for love in unconscious recognition of what has been denied.

Fear is a symptom of your deep sense of loss. If when you perceive it in others you learn to *supply* the loss, the basic *cause* of fear is removed. Thereby you teach yourself that fear does not exist *in you*, for you have *in yourself* the means for removing it and have demonstrated this by *giving* it. Fear and love are the only emotions of which you are capable. One is false, for it was made out of denial, and denial depends on the real belief in what is denied for its *own* existence. By interpreting fear correctly *as a positive affirmation of the underlying belief it masks*, you are undermining its perceived usefulness by rendering it useless. Defenses which do not work at all are *automatically* discarded. If you raise what fear conceals to *clear-cut, unequivocal predominance*, fear becomes meaningless. You have denied its power to conceal love, which was its only purpose. The mask which *you* have drawn across the face of love has disappeared. If you would look upon love, which *is* the world's reality, how could you do better than to recognize in every defense *against* it the underlying appeal *for* it? And how could you better learn of its reality than by answering the appeal for it by *giving* it? The Holy Spirit's interpretation of fear *does* dispel it, for the *awareness* of truth cannot *be* denied. Thus does the Holy Spirit replace fear with love and translate error into truth. And thus will *you* learn of Him how to replace your dream of separation with the fact of unity. For the separation is only the *denial* of union and, correctly interpreted, attests to your eternal knowledge that union is true. Miracles are merely the translation of denial into truth. If to love oneself is to *heal* oneself, those who are sick do *not* love themselves. Therefore, they are asking for the love that would heal them but which they are denying to themselves. If they knew the truth about themselves, they could not *be* sick. The task of the miracle-worker thus becomes *to deny the denial of truth*. The sick must heal *themselves*, for the truth is in them. Yet, having *obscured* it, the light in *another* mind must shine into theirs because that light *is* theirs. The light in them shines as brightly, *regardless* of the density of the fog that obscures it. If *you* give no power to the fog to obscure the light, it *has* none, for it has power only because the Son of God gave power to it. He must *himself* withdraw that power, remembering that *all* power is of God. *You can remember this for all the Sonship*. Do not allow your brother not to remember, for his forgetfulness is *yours.* But *your* remembering is *his*, for God cannot be remembered alone. *This is what you have forgotten*. To perceive the healing of your brother as the healing of yourself is thus the way to remember God. For you forgot your brothers *with* Him, and God's answer to your forgetting is but the way to remember. Perceive in sickness but another call for love and offer your brother what he believes he cannot offer himself. Whatever the sickness, there is but *one* remedy. You will be made whole as you *make* whole, for to perceive in sickness the appeal for health is to recognize in hatred the call for love. And to give a brother what he *really* wants is to offer it unto yourself, for your Father wills you to know your brother *as* yourself. Answer *his* call for love and *yours* is answered. Healing is the love of Christ for His Father and for *Himself.* Remember what we said about the frightening perceptions of little children which terrify them because they do not understand them. If they ask for enlightenment and *accept* it, their fears vanish, but if they *hide* their nightmares, they will *keep* them. It is easy to help an uncertain child, for he recognizes that he does not know what his perceptions mean. Yet you believe that you *do* know. Little children, you are hiding your heads under the covers of the heavy blankets you have laid upon yourselves. You are hiding your nightmares in the darkness of your own certainty and refusing to open your eyes *and look at them.* Let us not save nightmares, for they are not fitting offerings for Christ, and so they are not fit gifts for *you*. Take off the covers and look at what you are afraid of. Only the *anticipation* will frighten you, for the reality of nothingness cannot *be* frightening. Let us not delay this, for your dream of hatred will not leave you without help, and help is here. Learn to be quiet in the midst of turmoil, for quietness is the end of strife and this is the journey to peace. Look straight at every image that rises to delay you, for the goal is inevitable because it is eternal. The goal of love is but your right, and it belongs to you *despite* your preference. *You still want what God wills*, and no nightmare can defeat a Child of God in his purpose. For your purpose was given you by God, and you must accomplish it *because* it is His Will. Awake and remember your purpose, for it is *your* will to do so. What has been accomplished for you *must* be yours. Do not let your hatred stand in the way of love, for *nothing* can withstand the love of Christ for His Father or His Father's love for Him. A little while and you *will* see me, for I am not hidden because *you* are hiding. I will awaken you as surely as I awakened myself, for I awoke *for* you. In *my* resurrection is *your* release. Our mission is to escape *crucifixion*, not redemption. Trust in my help, for I did not walk alone, and I will walk with you as our Father walked with me. Did you not know that I walked with Him in peace? And does not that mean that peace goes with *us* on the journey? There is no fear in perfect love. We will but be making perfect to you what is *already* perfect *in* you. You do not fear the *unknown*, but the *known.* You will not fail in your mission because I failed not in mine. Give me but a little trust in the name of the *complete* trust I have in you, and we will easily accomplish the goal of perfection together. For perfection *is* and cannot *be* denied. To deny the denial of perfection is not so difficult as the denial of truth, and what we can accomplish together *must* be believed when you *see* it as accomplished. You who have tried to banish love have not succeeded, but you who choose to banish fear *will* succeed. The Lord is with you, but you know it not. Yet your Redeemer liveth and abideth in you in the peace out of which He was created. Would you not exchange *this* awareness for the awareness of your fear? When we have overcome fear—not by hiding it, not by minimizing it, not by denying its full import in any way—this *is* what you will really see. You cannot lay aside the obstacle to real vision without looking upon it, for to lay aside means to judge *against*. If *you* will look, the Holy Spirit will judge and will judge truly. He cannot shine away what *you* keep hidden, for you have not offered it to Him, and He cannot take it *from* you. We are therefore embarking on an organized, well-structured, and carefully planned program aimed at learning how to offer to the Holy Spirit everything you do *not* want. *He* knows what to do with it. You do *not* know how to use what He knows. Whatever is revealed to Him that is not of God is gone. Yet you must reveal it to *yourself* in perfect willingness, for otherwise His knowledge remains useless to you. Surely He will not fail to help you, since help is His *only* purpose. Do you not have greater reason for fearing the world as *you* perceive it than for looking at the cause of fear and letting it go forever?

I once asked if you were willing to sell all you have and give to the poor and follow me. This is what I meant: If you had no investment in anything in this world, you could teach the poor where their treasure *is.* The poor are merely those who have invested wrongly, and they are poor indeed! Because they are in need, it is given you to help them since *you* are among them. Consider how perfectly your lesson would be learned if you were unwilling to *share* their poverty. For poverty is lack, and there is but *one* lack since there is but *one* need. Suppose a brother insists on having you do something you think you do not want to do. The very fact of his insistence should tell you that he believes salvation lies in it. If you insist on refusing and experience a quick response of opposition, you are believing that *your* salvation lies in *not* doing it. You, then, are making the same mistake that he is and are making his error real to *both* of you. Insistence means investment, and what you invest in is *always* related to your notion of salvation. The question is always two-fold—first, *what* is to be saved, and second, *how* can it be saved? Whenever you become angry with a brother, for *whatever* reason, you are believing that the *ego* is to be saved and to be saved by *attack*. If *he* attacks, you are agreeing with this belief, and if *you* attack, you are reinforcing it. *Remember that those who attack are poor*. Their poverty asks for gifts, *not* for further impoverishment. You who could help them are surely acting destructively if you accept their poverty as *yours.* If you had not invested as *they* had, it would never occur to you to overlook their need. Recognize *what does not matter*, and if your brothers ask you for something “outrageous,” do it *because* it does not matter. Refuse and your opposition establishes that it *does* matter to you. It is only *you*, therefore, who have made the request outrageous, for nothing can *be* asked of you, and every request of a brother is for *you.* Why would you insist in *denying* him? For to do so is to deny yourself and impoverish both. *He* is asking for salvation, as *you* are. Poverty is of the ego and *never* of God. No “outrageous” request can be made of one who recognizes what is valuable and wants to accept nothing else. Salvation is for the mind, and it is attained through peace. This is the *only* thing that can be saved and the *only* way to save it. Any response *other* than love arises from a confusion about the “what” and the “how” of salvation, and this is the *only* answer. Never lose sight of this, and never allow yourself to believe even for an instant that there *is* another answer. For you will surely place yourself among the poor, who do not understand that they dwell in abundance and that salvation is come. To identify with the ego is to attack yourself and *make* yourself poor. That is why everyone who identifies with the ego feels deprived. What he *experiences* then is depression or anger, but what he *did* is to exchange his self-love for self-hate, making him *afraid* of himself. He does *not* realize this. Even if he is fully aware of anxiety, he does not perceive its source as his own *ego identification*, and he *always* tries to handle it by making some sort of insane “arrangement” with the world. He always perceives this world as *outside* himself, for this is crucial to his adjustment. He does not realize that he *makes* this world, for there *is* no world outside of him. If only the loving thoughts of God's Son are the world's reality, the real world *must* be in his mind. His insane thoughts, too, must be in his mind, but an internal conflict of this magnitude he cannot tolerate. A split mind *is* endangered, and the recognition that it encompasses completely opposed thoughts within itself *is* intolerable. Therefore the mind projects the split, *not* the reality. Everything you perceive as the outside world is merely your attempt to maintain your ego identification, for everyone believes that identification is salvation. Yet consider what has happened, for thoughts *do* have consequences to the thinker. You are *at odds* with the world as you perceive it because you think *it* is antagonistic to *you*. This is a necessary consequence of what you have done. You have projected outward what *is* antagonistic to what is inward, and therefore you would *have* to perceive it this way. That is why you must realize that your hatred is *in* your mind and *not* outside it before you can get rid of it and why you must get rid of it *before* you can perceive the world as it really is. We once said that God so loved the world that He gave it to His only-begotten Son. God *does* love the real world, and those who perceive *its* reality cannot *see* the world of death. For death is *not* of the real world, in which everything is eternal. God gave you the real world in exchange for the one you made out of your split mind, and which *is* the symbol of death. For if you could *really* separate yourselves from the Mind of God, you *would* die, and the world you perceive *is* a world of separation. You were willing to accept even death to deny your Father. Yet He would not have it so, and so it is *not* so. You still could not will against Him, and that is why you have no control over the world you made. It is not a world of will because it is governed by the desire to be unlike Him, and this desire is *not* will. The world you made is therefore totally chaotic, governed by arbitrary and senseless “laws,” and without meaning of *any* kind. For it was made out of what you do *not* want, projected from your mind because you were afraid of it. Yet this world is *only* in the mind of its maker along with his *real* salvation. Do not believe it is outside of yourself, for only by recognizing *where* it is will you gain control over it. For you *do* have control over your mind since the mind is the mechanism of decision. If you will recognize that *all* attack which you perceive is in your own mind *and nowhere else*, you will at last have placed its source, and where it began it must end. For in this same place also lies salvation. The altar of God where Christ abideth is there. You have defiled the altar but *not* the world. Yet Christ has placed the Atonement on the altar *for* you. Bring your perceptions of the world to this altar, for it is the altar to truth. There you will see your vision changed, and there you will learn to see truly. From this place, where God and His Son dwell in peace and where you are welcome, you will look out in peace and behold the world truly. Yet to find the place, you must relinquish your investment in the world as *you* have projected it, allowing the Holy Spirit to project the real world to you from the altar of God.

The ego is certain that love is dangerous, and this is always its central teaching. It never *puts* it this way; on the contrary, everyone who believes that the ego is salvation is intensely engaged in the search for love. Yet the ego, though encouraging the search very actively, makes one proviso—do not *find* it. Its dictates, then, can be summed up simply as, “Seek and do *not* find.” This is the one promise the ego holds out to you and the one promise it will *keep*. For the ego pursues its goal with fanatic insistence, and its reality testing, though severely impaired, is completely consistent. The search which the ego undertakes is therefore bound to be defeated. And since it also teaches that it is *your* identification, its guidance leads you to a journey which must end in perceived *self*\-defeat. For the ego *cannot* love, and in its frantic search for love, it is seeking what it is *afraid* to find. The search is inevitable because the ego is part of your mind, and because of its source, the ego is not wholly split off, or it could not be believed at all. For it is *your* mind that believes in it and gives existence to it. Yet it is also your mind that has the power to *deny* the ego's existence, and you will surely do so when you realize exactly what the journey is on which the ego sets you. It is surely obvious that no one wants to find what would *utterly* defeat him. Being unable to love, the ego would be totally inadequate in love's presence, for it could not respond at all. You would *have* to abandon the ego's guidance, for it would be quite apparent that it had not taught you the response pattern you *need.* The ego will therefore *distort* love and teach you that love calls forth the responses which the ego *can* teach. Follow its teaching, then, and you will *search* for love but will not *recognize* it. Do you realize that the ego must set you on a journey which cannot *but* lead to a sense of futility and depression? To seek and *not* to find is hardly joyous. Is this the promise *you* would keep? The Holy Spirit offers you another promise, and one that will lead to joy. For *His* promise is always, “Seek and you will *find*,” and under His guidance you cannot *be* defeated. His is the journey to *accomplishment*, and the goal He sets before you He will *give* you. For He will never deceive God's Son, whom He loves with the love of the Father. You *will* undertake a journey because you are *not* at home in this world. And you *will* search for your home whether you know where it is or not. If you believe it is outside yourself, the search will be futile, for you will be seeking it where it is not. You do not know how to look within yourself, for you do not *believe* your home is there. Yet the Holy Spirit knows it *for* you, and He will guide you *to* your home because that is His mission. As He fulfills *His* mission, He will teach you *yours*, for your mission is the same as His. By guiding your *brothers* home, you are but following Him. Behold the Guide your Father gave you that you might learn you have eternal life. For death is not your Father's Will nor yours, and whatever is true *is* the Will of the Father. You pay no price for life, for that was given you, but you *do* pay a price for death, and a very heavy one. If death is your treasure, you will sell everything else to purchase it. And you will believe that you *have* purchased it *because* you have sold everything else. Yet you *cannot* sell the Kingdom of Heaven. Your inheritance can neither be bought *nor* sold. There can *be* no disinherited parts of the Sonship, for God is whole, and all His extensions are like Him. The Atonement was not the price of our wholeness, but it *was* the price of your *awareness* of your wholeness. For what you chose to “sell” had to be kept for you since you could not “buy” it back. Yet *you* must invest in it, not with money but *with your spirit*. For Spirit is will, and will *is* the “price” of the Kingdom. Your inheritance awaits only the recognition that you have *been* redeemed. The Holy Spirit guides you into life eternal, but *you* must relinquish your investment in death, or you will not *see* life though it is all around you.

Only love is strong because it is *undivided.* The strong do not attack because they see no need to do so. *Before* the idea of attack can enter your mind, you must have *perceived* yourself as weak. Because you had attacked yourself and believed that the attack was *effective*, you behold yourself as weakened. No longer perceiving yourself and all your brothers as equal and regarding yourself as *weaker*, you attempt to “equalize” the situation *you* have made. You use attack to do so because you believe that attack was successful in weakening *you*. That is why the recognition of your *own* invulnerability is so important in the restoration of your sanity. For if you accept your invulnerability, you are recognizing that attack *has* no effect. Although you have attacked yourself, and very brutally, you will demonstrate that *nothing happened*. Therefore, by attacking you have not done *anything*. Once you realize this, there is no longer any *sense* in attack, for it manifestly *does not work* and *cannot* protect you. Yet the recognition of your invulnerability has more than negative value. If your attacks on yourself have *failed* to weaken you, *you are still strong*. You therefore have no need to “equalize” the situation to establish your strength. You will never realize the utter uselessness of attack *except* by recognizing that your attack on *yourself* had no effects. For others *do* react to attack if they perceive it, and if you are trying to attack *them*, you will be unable to avoid interpreting this as reinforcement. The *only* place where you can cancel out all reinforcement is in *yourself.* For *you* are always the first point of your attack, and if *this* has never been, it *has* no consequences. The Holy Spirit's love is your strength, for yours is divided and therefore not real. You could not trust your own love when you have *attacked* it. You cannot learn of perfect love with a split mind because a split mind has *made* itself a poor learner. You tried to make the separation eternal because you wanted to retain the characteristics of creation with your own *content.* Yet creation is *not* of you, and poor learners need special teaching. You have learning handicaps in a very literal sense. There are areas in your learning skills which are so impaired that you can progress only under constant, clear-cut direction provided by a Teacher Who can *transcend* your limited resources. He *becomes* your resource because, of *yourself*, you *cannot* learn. The learning situation in which you placed yourself *is* impossible, and in this situation you clearly require a special Teacher and a special curriculum. Poor learners are not good choices for teachers, either for themselves or for anyone else. You would hardly turn to *them* to establish the curriculum by which they can *escape* from their limitations. If they understood what is beyond them, they would not *be* handicapped. You do not know the meaning of love, and that *is* your handicap. Do not attempt to teach yourselves what you do not understand, and do not try to set up curriculum goals where yours have clearly failed. *Your* learning goal has been *not* to learn, and this *cannot* lead to successful learning. You cannot transfer what you have not learned, and the impairment of the ability to generalize is a crucial learning failure. Would you ask those who have *failed* to learn what learning aids are *for*? *They do not know*. For if they could interpret the aids correctly, they would have learned from them. We have said that the ego's rule is, “Seek and do *not* find.” Translated into curricular terms, this is the same as saying, “*Try* to learn but do *not* succeed.” The result of this curriculum goal is obvious. Every legitimate teaching aid, every real instruction, and every sensible guide to learning *will be misinterpreted*. For they are all for learning facilitation, which this strange curriculum goal is *against*. If you are trying to learn how *not* to learn and are using the aim of teaching to *defeat* itself, what can you expect *but* confusion? The curriculum does not make *sense.* This kind of “learning” has so weakened your mind that you *cannot* love, for the curriculum you have chosen is *against* love and amounts to a course in *how to attack yourself*. A necessary minor, supplementing this major curriculum goal, is learning how *not* to overcome the split which made this goal believable. And you can *not* overcome it, for all *your* learning is on its *behalf*. Yet your will speaks against your learning, as your learning speaks against your will, and so you fight *against* learning and succeed, for that *is* your will. But you do not realize even yet that there *is* something you *do* will to learn, and that you can learn it because it *is* your will to do so. You who have tried to learn what you do *not* will should take heart, for although the curriculum you set yourself is depressing indeed, it is merely ridiculous if you look at it. Is it *possible* that the way to achieve a goal is *not* to attain it? Resign *now* as your own teachers. *This* resignation will *not* lead to depression. It is merely the result of an honest appraisal of what you have taught yourselves and of the learning outcomes which have resulted. Under the proper learning conditions, which you can neither provide nor understand, you will become excellent learners *and* teachers. But it is not so yet and will not *be* so until the whole learning situation as *you* have set it up is reversed. Your learning *potential*, properly understood, is limitless because it will lead you to God. You can *teach* the way to Him *and* learn it if you follow the Teacher Who knows it and His curriculum for learning it. The curriculum is totally unambiguous because the goal is *not* divided, and the means and the end are in *complete* accord. You need offer only *undivided attention*. Everything else will be *given* you. For it is *your* will to learn aright, and nothing can oppose the Will of God's Son. His learning is as unlimited as *he* is.

The ego is trying to teach you how to gain the whole world and lose your own Soul. The Holy Spirit teaches that you *cannot* lose your Soul and there *is* no gain in the world, for *of itself* it profits nothing. To invest in something without profit is surely to impoverish yourself, and the overhead is high. Not only is there no profit in the investment, but the cost to *you* is enormous. For this investment costs you the world's reality by denying *yours* and gives you nothing in return. You *cannot* sell your Soul, but you *can* sell your *awareness* of it. You cannot perceive your Soul, but you will not *know* it while you perceive anything *else* as more valuable. The Holy Spirit is your strength because He perceives nothing *but* your Soul as you. He is perfectly aware that you do *not* know yourselves and perfectly aware of how to teach you what you are. *Because* He loves you, He will gladly teach you what He loves, for He wills to share it. Remembering you always, He cannot let you forget your worth. For the Father never ceases to remind Him of His Son, and He never ceases to remind His Son of the Father. God is in your memory *because* of Him. You chose to forget your Father, but you did not *will* to do so, and therefore you can decide otherwise. As it was *my* decision, so is it *yours*. You do not *want* the world. The only thing of value in it is whatever part of it you look upon with love. This gives it the only reality it will ever have. Its value is *not* in itself, but yours *is* in you. As self-value comes from self-*extension*, so does the *perception* of self-value come from the projection of loving thoughts outward. Make the world real unto *yourself*, for the real world is the gift of the Holy Spirit, and so it *belongs* to you. Correction is for all who cannot see. To open the eyes of the blind is the Holy Spirit's mission, for He knows that they have not lost their vision but merely sleep. He would awaken them from the sleep of forgetting to the remembering of God. Christ's eyes are open, and He will look upon whatever you see with love if you accept His vision as yours. The Holy Spirit keeps the vision of Christ for every Son of God who sleeps. In His sight the Son of God is perfect, and He longs to share His vision with you. He will show you the real world because God gave you Heaven. Through Him your Father calls His Son to remember. The awakening of His Son begins with his investment in the *real* world, and by this he will learn to reinvest in *himself*. For reality is one with the Father *and* the Son, and the Holy Spirit blesses the real world in Their Name. When you have seen this real world, as you will surely do, you *will* remember us. Yet you must learn the cost of sleeping and *refuse* to pay it. Only then will you decide to awaken. And then the real world will spring to your sight, for Christ has never slept. He is waiting to be seen, for He has never lost sight of *you*. He looks quietly on the real world, which He would share with you because He knows of the Father's love for Him. And knowing this, He would give you what is yours. In perfect peace He waits for you at His Father's altar, holding out the Father's love to you in the quiet light of the Holy Spirit's blessing. For the Holy Spirit will lead everyone home to his Father, where Christ waits as his Self. Every Child of God is one in Christ, for his Being is in Christ as Christ's is in God. Christ's love for you is His love for His Father, which He knows because He knows His Father's love for Him. When the Holy Spirit has at last led you to Christ at the altar to His Father, perception fuses into knowledge because perception has become so holy that its transfer to holiness is merely its natural extension. Love transfers to love without any interference, for the situations are identical. \[Only the *ability* to make this transfer is the product of learning.\] As you perceive more and more common elements in *all* situations, the transfer of your training under the Holy Spirit's guidance increases and becomes generalized. Gradually you learn to apply it to everyone and everything, for its applicability *is* universal. When this has been accomplished, perception and knowledge have become so similar that they share the unification of the laws of God. What is one cannot be perceived as separate, and the denial of the separation *is* the reinstatement of knowledge. At the altar of God, the holy perception of God's Son becomes so enlightened that light streams into it, and the Spirit of God's Son shines in the Mind of the Father and becomes one with it. Very gently does God shine upon Himself, loving the extension of Himself which is His Son. The world has no purpose as it blends into the purpose of God. For the real world has slipped quietly into Heaven, where everything eternal in it has always been. There the Redeemer and the redeemed join in perfect love of God and of each other. Heaven is your home, and being in God, it must *also* be in you.

Miracles demonstrate that learning has occurred under the right guidance, for learning is invisible, and what has been learned can be recognized only by its *results.* Its generalization is demonstrated as you use it in more and more situations. You will recognize that you have learned there is no order of difficulty in miracles when you have applied them to *all* situations. There *is* no situation to which miracles do not apply, and by applying them to all situations, you will gain the real world. For in this holy perception, you will be made whole, and the Atonement will radiate from *your* acceptance of it for *yourself* to everyone the Holy Spirit sends you for your blessing. In every Child of God His blessing lies, and in *your* blessing of the Children of God is His blessing to *you*. Everyone in the world must play his part in the redemption of the world to recognize that the world *has been* redeemed. You cannot see the invisible. Yet if you see its effects, you *know* it must be there. By perceiving what it *does*, you recognize its being. And by *what* it does, you learn what it *is*. You cannot *see* your abilities, but you gain confidence in their existence as they enable you to *act*. And the *results* of your actions you *can* see. The Holy Spirit is invisible, but you can see the *results* of His Presence, and through them you will learn that He is there. What He enables you to do is clearly *not* of this world, for miracles violate every law of reality as this world judges it. Every law of time and space, of magnitude and mass, of prediction and control is transcended, for what the Holy Spirit enables you to do is clearly beyond *all* of them. Perceiving His results, you will understand *where* He must be and finally *know* what He is. You cannot see the Holy Spirit, but you can see His manifestations. And unless you do, you will not realize He is there. Miracles are His witnesses and speak for His Presence. What you cannot see becomes real to you only through the witnesses who speak for it. For you can be *aware* of what you cannot see, and it can become compellingly real to you as its presence becomes manifest *through* you. Do the Holy Spirit's work, for you *share* in His function. As your function in Heaven is creation, so your function on earth is healing. God shares His function with you in Heaven, and the Holy Spirit shares His with you on earth. As long as you believe you have two functions, so long will you need correction. For this belief is the *destruction* of peace, a goal in direct opposition to the Holy Spirit's purpose. You see what you *expect*, and you expect what you *invite.* Your perception is the result of your invitation, coming to you as you sent for it. Whose manifestations would you see? Of whose presence would you be convinced? For you will believe in what you *manifest*, and as you look out, so will you see in. Two ways of looking at the world are in your mind, and your perception will reflect the guidance you chose. I am the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and when you see me, it will be because you have invited Him. For He *will* send you His witnesses if you will but look upon them. Remember always that you see what you seek, for what you seek you *will* find. The ego finds what *it* seeks and *only* that. It does not find love, for that is *not* what it is seeking. Yet seeking and finding are the same, and if you seek for two goals you will find them, but you will *recognize neither*. For you will think they are the same because you *want* them both. The mind always strives for integration, and if it is split and wants to *keep* the split, it will believe it has one goal by *making* it one. We said before that *what* you project is up to you, but it is *not* up to you *whether* to project, for projection is a law of mind. Perception *is* projection, and you look in *before* you look out. As you look in you choose the guide for seeing, and *then* you look out and behold his witnesses. This is *why* you find what you seek. What you want in *yourself*, you will make manifest by projection, and you will accept it *from* the world because you put it there *by* wanting it. When you think you are projecting what you do *not* want, it is still because you *do* want it. This leads directly to dissociation, for it represents the acceptance of two goals, each perceived in a *different* place, separated from each other *because* you made them different. The mind then sees a divided world *outside* itself but not *within*. This gives it an illusion of integrity and enables it to believe that it is pursuing one goal. As long as you perceive the world as split, *you* are not healed. For to be healed is to pursue one goal because you have *accepted* only one and *want* but one. When you want *only* love you will see nothing else. The contradictory nature of the witnesses you perceive is merely the reflection of your conflicting invitations. You have looked upon your minds and accepted opposition there, having *sought* it there. But do not then believe that the witnesses for opposition are true, for they attest only to *your* decision about reality, returning to you the message you *gave* them. Love is recognized by its messengers. If you make love manifest, its messengers will come to you because you *invited* them. The power of decision is your one remaining freedom as a prisoner of this world. *You can decide to see it right.* What *you* made of it is *not* its reality, for its reality is only what you *gave* it. You cannot really give anything but love to anyone or anything, nor can you really *receive* anything else from them. If you think you have received anything else, it is because you have looked within and thought you saw the power to give something else *within yourself*. It was only this decision that determined what you found, for it was the decision of what you *sought*. You are afraid of me because you looked within and are afraid of what you saw. Yet you could not have seen reality, for the reality of your mind is the loveliest of God's creations. Coming only from God, its power and grandeur could only bring you peace *if you really looked upon it.* If you are afraid, it is because you saw something *that is not there.* Yet in that same place, you could have looked upon me and all your brothers in the perfect safety of the mind which created us. For we are there in the peace of the Father, Who wills to project His peace through *you*. When you have accepted your mission to *project* peace, you will *find* it, for by *making it manifest*, you will *see* it. Its holy witnesses will surround you because you *called* upon them and they will come to you. I have heard your call and I have answered it, but you will not look upon me nor *hear* the answer which you sought. That is because you do not yet want *only* that. Yet as I become more real to you, you will learn that you *do* want only that. And you will see me as you look within, and we will look upon the world as God created it together. Through the eyes of Christ, *only* the real world exists and can *be* seen. As you decide, so will you see. And all that you see but witnesses to your decision. When you look within and see me, it will be because you have decided to manifest truth. And as you manifest it, you will see it both without *and* within, for you will see it without *because* you saw it first within. Everything you behold without is a judgment of what you beheld within. If it is *your* judgment, it will be wrong, for judgment is not your function. If it is the judgment of the Holy Spirit, it will be right, for judgment *is* His function. You share His function only by judging as *He* does, reserving no judgment at all unto yourselves. For you will judge *against* yourselves, but *He* will judge *for* you. Remember, then, that whenever you look without and react unfavorably to what you see, you have judged yourself unworthy and have condemned yourself to death. The death penalty is the ego's ultimate goal, for it fully believes that you are a criminal, as deserving of death as God knows you are deserving of life. The death penalty never leaves the ego's mind, for that is what it always reserves for you in the end. Wanting to kill you as the final expression of its feeling for you, it lets you live but to await death. It will torment you while you live, but its hatred is not satisfied until you die. For your destruction is the one end toward which it works, and the only end with which it will be satisfied. The ego is not a traitor to God to Whom treachery is impossible, but it *is* a traitor to you who believe *you* have been treacherous to your Father. That is why the *undoing* of guilt is an essential part of the Holy Spirit's teaching. For as long as you feel guilty, you are listening to the voice of the ego, which tells you that you *have* been treacherous to God and therefore *deserve* death. You will think that death comes from God and *not* from the ego because, by confusing yourself *with* the ego, you believe that *you* want death. And from what you want, God does *not* save you. When you are tempted to yield to the desire for death, *remember that I did not die*. You will realize that this is true when you look within and *see* me. Would I have overcome death for myself alone? And would eternal life have been given me of the Father *unless* He had also given it to you? When you learn to make *me* manifest, *you* will never see death. For you will have looked upon the deathless in *yourself*, and you will see only the eternal as you look out upon a world that *cannot* die.

Do you *really* believe that you can kill the Son of God? The Father has hidden His Son safely within Himself and kept him far away from your destructive thoughts, but *you* know neither the Father nor the Son because of them. You attack the real world every day and every hour and every minute, and yet you are surprised that you cannot see it. If you seek love in order to attack it, you will *never* find it. For if love is sharing, how can you find it except through *itself*? Offer it and it will come to you because it is drawn to itself. But offer attack and it will remain hidden, for it can live only in peace. God's Son is as safe as his Father, for the Son knows his Father's protection and *cannot* fear. His Father's love holds him in perfect peace, and needing nothing, he *asks* for nothing. Yet he is far from you whose Self he is, for you chose to attack him, and he disappeared from your sight into his Father. *He* did not change, but *you* did. For a split mind and all its works were not created by the Father and could not live in the knowledge of Him. When you made what is *not* true visible, what *is* true became invisible. Yet it cannot be invisible in *itself*, for the Holy Spirit sees it with perfect clarity. It is invisible to you because you are looking at something *else*. Yet it is no more up to you to decide what is visible and what is invisible than it is up to you to decide what reality is. What can be seen is what the *Holy Spirit* sees. The definition of reality is God's, not yours. *He* created it, and *He* knows what it is. You who knew have forgotten, and unless He had given you a way to remember, you would have condemned yourselves to oblivion. Because of your Father's love you can *never* forget Him, for no one can forget what God Himself placed in his memory. You can *deny* it, but you cannot *lose* it. A Voice will answer every question you ask, and a Vision will correct the perception of everything you see. For what you have made invisible is the *only* truth, and what you have not heard is the *only* answer. God would reunite you with yourself and did not abandon you in your seeming distress. You are waiting only for Him and do not know it. Yet His memory shines in your minds and cannot *be* obliterated. It is no more past than future, being forever always. You have but to ask for this memory, and you *will* remember. Yet the memory of God cannot shine in a mind which has *made* it invisible and wants to *keep* it so. For the memory of God can dawn only in a mind that wills to remember and that has relinquished the insane desire to control reality. You who cannot even control yourselves should hardly aspire to control the universe. But look upon what you have made of it and rejoice that it is not so. Son of God, be not content with nothing! What is not real cannot *be* seen and *has* no value. God could not offer His Son what has no value, nor could His Son receive it. You were redeemed the instant you thought you had deserted Him. Everything you made has never been and is invisible because the Holy Spirit does not see it. Yet what He *does* see is yours to behold, and through His vision your perception is healed. You have made the invisible the only truth that this world holds. Valuing nothing, you have sought nothing and *found* nothing. By making nothing *real* to you, you have *seen* it. *But it is not there*. And Christ is invisible to you because of what you have made visible to *yourselves*. Yet it does not matter how much distance you have tried to interpose between your awareness and truth. God's Son *can* be seen because his vision is shared. The Holy Spirit looks upon him and sees nothing else in *you.* What is invisible to you is perfect in His sight and encompasses *all* of it. He has remembered you because He forgot not the Father. You looked upon the unreal and found despair. Yet by seeking the unreal, what else *could* you find? The unreal world *is* a thing of despair, for it can never be. And you who share God's Being with Him could never be content without reality. What God did not give you has no power over you, and the attraction of love for love remains irresistible. For it is the function of love to unite all things unto itself, and to hold all things together by extending its wholeness. The real world was given you by God in loving exchange for the world *you* made and which *you* see. But take it from the hand of Christ and look upon it. Its reality will make everything else invisible, for beholding it is *total* perception. And as you look upon it, you will remember that it was always so. Nothingness will become invisible, for you will at last have seen truly. Redeemed perception is easily translated into knowledge, for *only* perception is capable of error, and perception has never been. Being corrected, it gives place to knowledge, which is forever the *only* reality. The Atonement is but the way back to what was never lost. Your Father could not cease to love His Son.

If you did not feel guilty, you *could* not attack, for condemnation is the root of attack. It is the judgment of one mind by another as *unworthy* of love and *deserving* of punishment. But herein lies the split. For the mind that judges perceives itself as *separate* from the mind being judged, believing that by punishing another, *it* will escape punishment. All this is but the delusional attempt of the mind to deny itself and *escape the penalty of denial*. It is not an attempt to *relinquish* denial but to *hold on* to it. For it is guilt that has obscured the Father to you, and it is guilt that has driven you insane. The acceptance of guilt into the Mind of God's Son was the beginning of the separation, as the acceptance of the Atonement is its end. The world you see is the delusional system of those made mad by guilt. Look carefully at this world, and you will realize that this is so. For this world is the symbol of punishment, and all the laws which seem to govern it are the laws of death. Children are born into it through pain and in pain. Their growth is attended by suffering, and they learn of sorrow and separation and death. Their minds are trapped in their brain, and its powers decline if their bodies are hurt. They seem to love, yet they desert and are deserted. They appear to lose what they love, perhaps the most insane belief of all. And their bodies wither and gasp and are laid in the ground and seem to be no more. Not one of them but has thought that God is cruel. If this *were* the real world, God *would* be cruel. For no father could subject his children to this as the price of salvation and *be* loving. *Love does not kill to save*. If it did, attack *would* be salvation, and this is the *ego's* interpretation, *not* God's. Only the world of guilt could demand this, for only the guilty could *conceive* of it. Adam's “sin” could have touched none of you, had you not believed that it was the *Father* Who drove him out of paradise. For in that belief, the knowledge of the Father was lost, since only those who do *not* understand Him *could* believe it. This world *is* a picture of the crucifixion of God's Son. And until you realize that God's Son cannot *be* crucified, this is the world you will see. Yet you will not realize this until you accept the eternal fact that God's Son is *not guilty.* He *deserves* only love because he has *given* only love. He cannot *be* condemned because he has never condemned. The Atonement is the final lesson he need learn, for it teaches him that, never having sinned, he has no *need* of salvation. Long ago we said that the Holy Spirit shares the goal of all good teachers, whose ultimate aim is to make themselves unnecessary by teaching their pupils all they know. The Holy Spirit wills *only* this, for sharing the Father's love for His Son, He wills to remove *all* guilt from his mind that he may remember his Father in peace. For peace and guilt are antithetical, and the Father can be remembered *only* in peace. Love and guilt cannot coexist, and to accept one is to *deny* the other. Guilt hides Christ from your sight, for it is the denial of the blamelessness of God's Son. In this strange world which you have made, the Son of God *has* sinned. How could you *see* him, then? By making him invisible, the world of retribution rose in the black cloud of guilt which you accepted, and you hold it dear. For the blamelessness of Christ is the proof that the ego never was and can never be. Without guilt the ego *has* no life, and God's Son *is* without guilt. As you look upon yourselves and judge what you do honestly, as you have been asked to do, you may be tempted to wonder how you *can* be guiltless. Yet consider this: You are not guiltless in time, but in *eternity.* You *have* “sinned” in the past, but there *is* no past. Always has *no* direction. Time seems to go in one direction, but when you reach its end, it will roll up like a long carpet which has spread along the past behind you and will disappear. As long as you believe the Son of God is guilty, you will walk along this carpet, believing that it leads to death. And the journey will seem long and cruel and senseless, for so it *is.* The journey which the Son of God has set himself is foolish indeed, but the journey on which his Father sets him is one of release and joy. The Father is *not* cruel, and His Son *cannot* hurt himself. The retaliation he fears and which he *sees* will never touch him, for although he believes in it, the Holy Spirit *knows* it is not true. The Holy Spirit stands at the *end* of time, where *you* must be because He is *with* you. He has *always* undone everything unworthy of the Son of God, for such was His mission, given Him by God. And what God gives has *always* been. You will see me as you learn the Son of God is guiltless. He has always sought his guiltlessness, and he has *found* it. For everyone is seeking to escape from the prison he has made, and the way to find release is not denied him. Being *in* him, he *has* found it. *When* he finds it is only a matter of time, and time is but an illusion. For the Son of God is guiltless *now*, and the brightness of his purity shines untouched forever in God's Mind. God's Son will *always* be as he was created. Deny *your* world and judge him not, for his eternal guiltlessness is in the mind of his Father, and protects him forever. When you have accepted the Atonement for yourselves, you will realize that there *is* no guilt in God's Son. And *only* as you look upon him as guiltless can you understand his oneness. For the idea of guilt brings a belief in condemnation of one by another, projecting separation in place of unity. You can condemn only *yourself*, and by so doing, you cannot know that you *are* God's Son. You have denied the condition of his Being, which is his perfect blamelessness. Out of love he was created, and in love he abides. Goodness and mercy have always followed him, for he has always extended the love of his Father. As you perceive the holy companions who travel with you, you will realize that there *is* no journey, but only an awakening. The Son of God, who sleepeth not, has kept faith with his Father *for* you. There is no road to travel on and no time to travel through. For God waits not for His Son in time, being forever unwilling to be without him. And so it has always been. Let the holiness of God's Son shine away the cloud of guilt that darkens your mind, and by accepting his purity *as* yours, learn of him that it *is* yours. You are invulnerable *because* you are guiltless. You can hold on to the past *only* through guilt. For guilt establishes that you will be punished for what you have done and thus depends on one-dimensional time, proceeding from past to future. No one who believes this can understand what *always* means. And therefore guilt *must* deprive you of the appreciation of eternity. You are immortal *because* you are eternal and always *must* be now. Guilt, then, is a way of holding past and future in your minds to ensure the ego's continuity. For if what has been *will* be punished, the ego's continuity is guaranteed. Yet the guarantee of your continuity is God's, not the ego's. And immortality is the opposite of time, for time passes away, while immortality is constant. Accepting the Atonement teaches you what immortality *is*, for by accepting your guiltlessness, you learn that the past has never been, and so the future is needless. The future, in time, is always associated with expiation, and *only* guilt could induce a sense of *need* for expiation. Accepting the guiltlessness of the Son of God as *yours* is therefore God's way of reminding you of His Son and what he is in truth. For God has never condemned His Son, and being guiltless, he *is* eternal. You cannot dispel guilt by making it real and *then* atoning for it. This is the ego's plan, which it offers *instead* of dispelling it. The ego believes in atonement through *attack*, being fully committed to the insane notion that attack *is* salvation. And you who cherish guilt must *also* believe it, for how else but by identifying *with* the ego could you hold dear what you do not want? The ego teaches you to attack yourself *because* you are guilty, and this must *increase* the guilt, for guilt is the *result* of attack. In the ego's teaching, then, there *is* no escape from guilt. For attack makes guilt real, and if it is real, there *is* no way to overcome it. The Holy Spirit dispels it simply through the calm recognition that it has never been. As He looks upon the guiltless Son of God, he *knows* this is true. And being true for *you*, you *cannot* attack yourself, for without guilt, attack is impossible. You, then, *are* saved because God's Son is guiltless. And being wholly pure, you *are* invulnerable.