Three

This is a course in *mind training*. All learning involves attention and study at some level. Some of the later parts of the course rest too heavily on these earlier sections not to require their study. You will also need them for preparation. Without this, you may become much too fearful when the unexpected *does* occur to make constructive use of it. However, as you study these earlier sections, you will begin to see some of their implications, which will be amplified considerably later on. The reason a solid foundation is necessary is because of the confusion between fear and awe to which we have already referred and which so many people hold. You will remember that we said that awe is inappropriate in connection with the Sons of God because you should not experience awe in the presence of your equals. However, it was also emphasized that awe is a proper reaction in the Presence of your Creator. I have been careful to clarify my own role in the Atonement, without either over- or understating it. I have also tried to do the same in connection with yours. I have stressed that awe is *not* an appropriate reaction to me because of our inherent equality. Some of the later steps in this course, however, *do* involve a more direct approach to God Himself. It would be most unwise to start on these steps without careful preparation or awe will be confused with fear, and the experience will be more traumatic than beatific. Healing is of God in the end. The means are being carefully explained to you. Revelation may occasionally *reveal* the end to you, but to reach it the means are needed.

1. The miracle abolishes the need for lower-order concerns. Since it is an out-of-pattern time interval, the ordinary considerations of time and space do not apply. When *you* perform a miracle, *I* will arrange both time and space to adjust to it. 2. Clear distinction between what *has been* created and what *is being* created is essential. *All* forms of correction (or healing) rest on this *fundamental* correction in level perception. 3. Another way of stating the above point is: Never confuse right- with wrong-mindedness. Responding to *any* form of miscreation with anything except *a desire to heal* (or a miracle) is an expression of this confusion. 4. The miracle is always a *denial* of this error and an affirmation of the truth. Only right-mindedness *can* create in a way that has any real effect. Pragmatically, what has no real effect has no real existence. Its effect, then, is emptiness. Being without substantial content, it lends itself to projection in the improper sense. 5. The level-adjustment power of the miracle induces the right perception for healing. Until this has occurred, healing cannot be understood. Forgiveness is an empty gesture unless it entails correction. Without this it is essentially judgmental rather than healing. 6. Miraculous forgiveness is *only* correction. It has *no* element of judgment at all. “Father forgive them for they know not *what* they do” in no way evaluates what they do. It is strictly limited to an appeal to God to heal their minds. There is no reference to the outcome of their mis-thought. *That* does not matter. 7. The biblical injunction, “Be of one mind” is the statement for revelation-readiness. My *own* injunction, “Do this in remembrance of me” is the request for cooperation from miracle workers. It should be noted that the two statements are not in the same order of reality. The latter involves a time awareness, since to remember implies recalling the past in the present. Time is under *my* direction, but Timelessness belongs to God alone. In time we exist for and with each other. In Timelessness we coexist with God.

There is another point which must be perfectly clear before any residual fear which may still be associated with miracles becomes entirely groundless. The crucifixion did *not* establish the Atonement. The resurrection did. This is a point which many very sincere Christians have misunderstood. No one who is free of the scarcity-error could *possibly* make this mistake. If the crucifixion is seen from an upside-down point of view, it *does* appear as if God permitted and even encouraged one of his Sons to suffer *because* he was good. Many ministers preach this every day. This particularly unfortunate interpretation, which arose out of the combined misprojections of a large number of my would-be followers, has led many people to be bitterly afraid of God. This particularly anti-religious concept enters into many religions, and this is neither by chance nor by coincidence. Yet the real Christian would have to pause and ask, “How could this be?” Is it likely that God Himself would be capable of the kind of thinking which His own words have clearly stated is unworthy of man? The best defense, as always, is not to attack another's position but rather to protect the truth. It is unwise to accept any concept if you have to turn a whole frame of reference around in order to justify it. This procedure is painful in its minor applications and genuinely tragic on a mass basis. Persecution is a frequent result, undertaken to justify the terrible misperception that God Himself persecuted His own Son on behalf of salvation. The very words are meaningless. It has been particularly difficult to overcome this because, although the error itself is no harder to overcome than any other error, men were unwilling to give this one up because of its prominent “escape” value. In milder forms a parent says, “This hurts me more than it hurts you,” and feels exonerated in beating a child. Can you believe that the Father *really* thinks this way? It is so essential that all such thinking be dispelled that we must be very sure that *nothing* of this kind remains in your mind. I was not punished because you were bad. The wholly benign lesson the Atonement teaches is lost if it is tainted with this kind of distortion in *any* form. “Vengeance is Mine sayeth the Lord,” is a strictly karmic viewpoint. It is a real misperception of truth by which man assigns his own “evil” past to God. The “evil conscience” from the past has nothing to do with God. He did not create it, and He does not maintain it. God does *not* believe in karmic retribution. His Divine Mind does not create that way. *He* does not hold the evil deeds of a man even against himself. Is it likely, then, that He would hold against anyone the evil that *another* did? Be very sure that you recognize how utterly impossible this assumption really is and how *entirely* it arises from misprojection. This kind of error is responsible for a host of related errors including the belief that God rejected man and forced him out of the Garden of Eden. It is also responsible for the fact that you may believe from time to time that I am misdirecting you. I have made every effort to use words that are almost impossible to distort, but man is very inventive when it comes to twisting symbols around. God Himself is *not* symbolic; He is *fact*. The Atonement too is totally without symbolism. It is perfectly clear because it exists in light. Only man's attempts to shroud it in darkness have made it inaccessible to the unwilling and ambiguous to the partly willing. The Atonement itself radiates nothing but truth. It therefore epitomizes harmlessness and sheds *only* blessing. It could not do this if it arose from anything but perfect innocence. Innocence is wisdom because it is unaware of evil, which does not exist. It is, however, *perfectly* aware of *everything* that is true. The Resurrection demonstrated that *nothing* can destroy truth. Good *can* withstand any form of evil because light abolishes *all* forms of darkness. The Atonement is thus the perfect lesson. It is the final demonstration that all of the other lessons which I taught are true. Man is released from *all* errors if he believes in this. The deductive approach to teaching accepts the generalization which is applicable to *all* single instances rather than building up the generalization after analyzing numerous single instances separately. If you can accept the *one* generalization *now*, there will be no need to learn from many smaller lessons. *Nothing* can prevail against a Son of God who commends his Spirit into the hands of his Father. By doing this, the mind awakens from its sleep and [the Soul] remembers its Creator. All sense of separation disappears, and level confusion vanishes. The Son of God *is* part of the Holy Trinity, but the Trinity itself is *One*. There is no confusion within its levels because they are of One Mind and One Will. This single purpose creates perfect integration and establishes the peace of God. Yet this vision can be perceived only by the truly innocent. Because their hearts are pure, the innocent defend true perception instead of defending themselves *against* it. Understanding the lesson of the Atonement, they are without the will to attack, and therefore they see truly. This is what the Bible means when it says, “When He shall appear (or be perceived) we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He *is*.” Sacrifice is a notion totally unknown to God. It arises solely from fear. This is particularly unfortunate because frightened people are apt to be vicious. Sacrificing another in *any* way is a clear cut violation of God's own injunction that man should be merciful even as his Father in Heaven. It has been hard for many Christians to realize that this commandment (or assignment) also applies to *themselves*. Good teachers never terrorize their students. To terrorize is to attack, and this results in rejection of what the teacher offers. The result is learning failure. I have been correctly referred to as “the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.” Those who represent the lamb as blood-stained, an all-too-widespread error, do *not* understand the meaning of the symbol. Correctly understood, it is a very simple parable which merely speaks of my innocence. The lion and the lamb lying down together refers to the fact that strength and innocence are *not* in conflict but naturally live in peace. “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” is another way of saying the same thing. There has been some human controversy about the nature of seeing in relation to the integrative powers of the brain. Correctly understood, the issue revolves around the question of whether the body or the mind can see (or understand). This is not really open to question at all. The body is not capable of understanding, and only the mind can perceive *anything*. A pure mind knows the truth, and this *is* its strength. It cannot attack the body because it recognizes exactly what the body *is*. This is what “a sane mind in a sane body” really means. It does *not* confuse destruction with innocence because it associates innocence with strength, *not* with weakness. Innocence is *incapable* of sacrificing anything, because the innocent mind *has* everything and strives only to *protect* its wholeness. This is why it *cannot* misproject. It can only honor man, because honor is the natural greeting of the truly loved to others who are like them. The lamb taketh away the sins of the world only in the sense that the state of innocence, or grace, is one in which the meaning of the Atonement is perfectly apparent. The innocence of God is the true state of mind of His Son. In this state, man's mind *does* see God [and because] he sees Him as he is[, he knows] that the Atonement, *not* sacrifice, is the *only* appropriate gift to His Own altar, where nothing except true perfection belongs. The understanding of the innocent is *truth*. That is why their altars are truly radiant.

We have repeatedly stated that the basic concepts referred to in this course are *not* matters of degree. Certain fundamental concepts *cannot* be meaningfully understood in terms of coexisting polarities. It is impossible to conceive of light and darkness, or everything and nothing, as joint possibilities. They are all true *or* all false. It is essential that you realize that behavior is erratic until a firm commitment to one or the other is made. A firm commitment to darkness or nothingness is impossible. No one has ever lived who has not experienced *some* light and *some* [of everything]. This makes everyone really unable to deny truth totally, even if he generally deceives himself in this connection. That is why those who live largely in darkness and emptiness never find any lasting solace. Innocence is *not* a partial attribute. It is not a real defense *until* it is total. When it is partial, it is characterized by the same erratic nature that holds for other two-edged defenses. The partly innocent are apt to be quite stupid at times. It is not until their innocence becomes a genuine viewpoint which is universal in its application that it becomes wisdom. Innocent (or true) perception means that you *never* misperceive and *always* see truly. More simply, it means that you never see what does not really exist. When you lack confidence in what someone will do, you are attesting to your belief that he is not in his right mind. This is hardly a miracle-based frame of reference. It also has the disastrous effect of denying the creative power of the miracle. The miracle perceives everything *as it is*. If nothing but the truth exists (and this is really a redundant statement, because what is not true *cannot* exist) right-minded seeing cannot see anything *but* perfection. We have said many times that *only* what God creates, or what man creates with the same will, has any real existence. This, then, is all the innocent can see. They do not suffer from the distortions of the separated ones. The way to correct all such distortions is to withdraw your *faith* from them and invest it *only* in what is true. You *cannot* validate the invalid. I would suggest that you voluntarily give up all such attempts because they can only be frantic. If you are willing to validate what *is* true in everything you perceive, you will make it true for *you*. Truth overcomes *all* error. This means that if you perceive truly, you are canceling out misperceptions in yourself *and* in others simultaneously. Because you see them as they are, you offer them your own validation of *their* truth. This is the healing which the miracle actively fosters.

We have been emphasizing perception and have said very little about cognition as yet, because you are confused about the difference between them. The reason we have dealt so little with cognition is because you must get your perceptions straightened out before you can *know* anything. To know is to be certain. Uncertainty merely means that you do *not* know. Knowledge is power *because* it is certain, and certainty is strength. Perception is merely temporary. It is an attribute of the space-time belief and is therefore subject to fear or love. Misperceptions produce fear, and true perceptions produce love. *Neither* produces certainty, because *all* perception varies. That is why it is *not* knowledge. True perception is the *basis* for knowledge, but *knowing* is the affirmation of truth. All your difficulties ultimately stem from the fact that you do not recognize or *know* yourselves, each other, or God. To recognize means to “know again,” implying that you knew before. You can see in many ways, because perception involves different interpretations, and this means that it is not whole. The miracle is a way of perceiving, *not* of knowing. It is the right answer to a question, and you do not ask questions at all when you know. Questioning illusions is the first step in undoing them. The miracle, or the “right answer,” corrects them. Since perceptions *change*, their dependence on time is obvious. They are subject to transitory states, and this necessarily implies variability. How you perceive at any given time determines what you *do*, and action *must* occur in time. Knowledge is timeless, because certainty is *not* questionable. You *know* when you have *ceased* to ask questions. The questioning mind perceives itself in time and therefore looks for *future* answers. The unquestioning mind is closed because it believes the future and present will be the same. This establishes an unchanged state or stasis. It is usually an attempt to counteract an underlying fear that the future will be *worse* than the present, and this fear inhibits the tendency to question at all. Visions are the natural perception of the Spiritual eye, but they are still corrections. The Spiritual eye is symbolic and therefore not a device for knowing. It *is*, however, a means of right perception, which brings it into the proper domain of the miracle. Properly speaking, “a vision of God” is a miracle rather than a revelation. The fact that perception is involved at all removes the experience from the realm of knowledge. That is why visions do not last. The Bible instructs you to “*know* yourself” or *be certain*. Certainty is *always* of God. When you love someone, you have perceived him as he is, and this makes it possible for you to *know* him. However, it is not until you *recognize* him that you can know him. While you ask questions about God, you are clearly implying that you do *not* know Him. Certainty does not require action. When you say that you are *acting* on the basis of knowledge, you are really confusing perception and cognition. Knowledge brings the mental strength for creative *thinking* but *not* for right *doing*. Perception, miracles, and doing are closely related. Knowledge is the result of revelation and induces only thought. Perception involves the body, even in its most spiritualized form. Knowledge comes from the altar within and is timeless because it is certain. To perceive the truth is *not* the same as knowing it. If you attack error in one another, you will hurt yourself. You cannot *recognize* each other when you attack. Attack is *always* made on a stranger. You are *making* him a stranger by misperceiving him so that you *cannot* know him. It is *because* you have made him a stranger that you are afraid of him. *Perceive* him correctly so that you can *know* him. Right perception is necessary before God can communicate directly to His own altars which He has established in His Sons. There He can communicate His certainty, and *His* knowledge will bring peace *without* question. God is not a stranger to His Sons, and His Sons are not strangers to each other. Knowledge preceded both perception and time and will ultimately replace them. That is the real meaning of the Biblical description of God as “Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.” It also explains the quotation, “Before Abraham was *I am*.” Perception can and must be stabilized, but knowledge *is* stable. “Fear God and keep His commandments” should read “*Know* God and accept His certainty.” There are no strangers in His creation. To create as He created, you can create only what you *know* and accept as yours. God knows His Children with perfect certainty. He created them *by* knowing them. He recognized them perfectly. When they do not recognize each other, they do not recognize Him.

[The Soul knows, loves, and creates. These are its unequivocal functions.] The abilities man now possesses are only shadows of his real strengths. All of his functions are equivocal and open to question or doubt. This is because he is not certain how he will *use* them. He is therefore incapable of knowledge, being uncertain. He is also incapable of knowledge, because he can perceive lovelessly. He cannot create surely, because his perception deceives [and illusions are not pure]. Perception did not exist until the separation had introduced degrees, aspects, and intervals. The Soul has no levels, and *all* conflict arises from the concept of levels. [Wars arise where some regard others as if they were on a different level. All interpersonal conflicts arise from this fallacy.] Only the levels of the Trinity are capable of unity. The levels which man created by the separation cannot *but* conflict. This is because they are essentially meaningless to each other. Freud realized this perfectly and that is why he conceived the different levels in his view of the psyche as forever irreconcilable. They were conflict-prone by definition, because they wanted different things and obeyed different principles. In *our* picture of the psyche, there is an unconscious level which properly consists *only* of the miracle ability and which should be under *my* direction. There is also a conscious level, which perceives or is aware of impulses from both the unconscious and the superconscious. Consciousness is thus the level of perception but *not* of knowledge. Again, to perceive is *not* to know. Consciousness was the first split that man introduced into himself. He became a *perceiver* rather than a creator in the true sense. Consciousness is correctly identified as the domain of the ego. The ego is a man-made attempt to perceive himself as he *wished* to be rather than as he *is*. This is an example of the created-creator confusion we have spoken of before. Yet man can only know himself as he is because that is all he can be *sure* of. Everything else *is* open to question. The ego is the questioning compartment in the post-separation psyche which man created for himself. It is capable of asking valid questions but *not* of perceiving valid answers because these are cognitive and cannot *be* perceived. The endless speculation about the meaning of mind has led to considerable confusion because the mind *is* confused. Only One-Mindedness is without confusion. A separated or divided mind *must* be confused; it is uncertain by definition. It *has* to be in conflict because it is out of accord with itself. Intrapersonal conflict arises from the same basis as interpersonal conflict. One part of the psyche perceives another part as on a different level and does not understand it. This makes the parts strangers to each other, without recognition. This is the essence of the fear-prone condition in which attack is *always* possible. Man has every reason to feel afraid as he perceives himself. This is why he cannot escape from fear until he *knows* that he did not and could not create himself. He can *never* make his misperceptions valid. His creation is beyond his own error, and that is why he *must* eventually choose to heal the separation. Right-mindedness is not to be confused with the *knowing* mind, because it is applicable only to right perception. You can be right-minded or wrong-minded, and even this is subject to degrees, a fact which clearly demonstrates a lack of association with knowledge. The term “right-mindedness” is properly used as the *correction* for “wrong-mindedness,” and applies to the state of mind which induces accurate perception. It is miraculous because it *heals* misperception, and this is indeed a miracle in view of how man perceives himself. Perception *always* involves some misuse of will, because it involves the mind in areas of uncertainty. The mind is very active because it has will-power. When it willed the separation, it willed to perceive. Until then, it willed *only* to know. Afterwards it willed ambiguously, and the only way *out* of ambiguity *is* clear perception. The mind returns to its proper function only when it *wills to know*. This places it in the Soul's service, where perception is meaningless. The superconscious is the level of the mind which wills this. The mind chose to divide itself when it willed to create both its own levels *and* the ability to perceive, but it could not entirely separate itself *from* the Soul because it is from the Soul that it derives its whole power to create. Even in miscreation will is affirming its Source or it would merely cease to be. This is impossible because it is part of the Soul which God created and which is therefore eternal. The ability to perceive made the body possible because you must perceive *something* and *with* something. This is why perception involves an exchange or translation, which knowledge does not need. The interpretive function of perception, actually a distorted form of creation, then permitted man to interpret the body as *himself*, which, though depressing, was an attempt to escape from the conflict he had induced. The superconscious, which *knows*, could not be reconciled with this loss of power because it is incapable of darkness. This is why it became almost inaccessible to the mind and entirely inaccessible to the body. Thereafter, the superconscious was perceived as a threat, because light does abolish darkness merely by establishing the fact that it is not there. The truth will *always* overcome error in this sense. This is not an *active* process of destruction at all. We have already emphasized that knowledge does not *do anything*. It can be *perceived* as an attacker, but it *cannot* attack. What man perceives as its attack is merely his own vague recognition of the fact that it can always be *remembered*, never having been destroyed. God and the Souls He created remain in surety, and therefore *know* that no miscreation exists. Truth cannot deal with unwilling error because it does not will to be blocked out. I was a man who remembered the Soul and its knowledge, and as a man I did not attempt to counteract *error* with knowledge so much as to *correct* error from the bottom up. I demonstrated both the powerlessness of the body *and* the power of the mind. By uniting my will with that of my Creator, I naturally remembered the Soul and its own real purpose. I cannot unite your will with God's *for* you, but I *can* erase all misperceptions from your mind if you will bring it under my guidance. *Only* your misperceptions stand in your own way. Without them your choice is certain. Sane perception *induces* sane choosing. The Atonement was an act based on true perception. I cannot choose for you, but I *can* help you make your own right choice. “Many are called, but few are chosen” should read, “*All* are called, but few choose to listen. Therefore, they do not choose *right*.” The “chosen ones” are merely those who choose right *sooner*. This is the real meaning of the celestial speed-up. Strong wills can do this *now*, and you *will* find rest for your Souls. God knows you only in peace, and this *is* your reality.

We said before that the abilities which man possesses are only shadows of his real strengths and that the intrusion of the ability to perceive, which is inherently judgmental, was introduced only *after* the separation. No one has been sure of anything since. You will also remember, however, that I made it clear that the resurrection was the means for the *return* to knowledge, which was accomplished by the union of my will with the Father's. We can now make a distinction which will greatly facilitate clarity in our subsequent statements. Since the separation, the words “create” and “make” have been greatly confused. When you make something, you make it out of a sense of lack or need. Anything that is made is made for a specific purpose and has no true generalizability. When you make something to fill a perceived lack, which is obviously why you would want to make anything, you are tacitly implying that you believe in separation. Knowing, as we have frequently observed, does not lead to doing at all. The confusion between your own creation and what *you* create is so profound that it has become literally impossible for you to know anything. Knowledge is always stable, and it is quite evident that human beings are not. Nevertheless, they *are* perfectly stable as God created them. In this sense, when their behavior is unstable they are *disagreeing* with God's idea of the creation. Man can do this if he chooses, but he would hardly *want* to do it if he were in his right mind. The problem that bothers you most is the fundamental question which man continually asks of himself, but which cannot properly be directed to himself at all. He keeps asking himself what he *is*. This implies that the answer is not only one which he knows but is also one which is up to him to supply. Man *cannot* perceive himself correctly. He *has* no image. The word “image” is always perception-related and *not* a product of [knowing]. Images are symbolic and stand for something else. The current emphasis on “changing your image” merely recognizes the power of perception, but it also implies that there is nothing to *know*. Knowing is *not* open to interpretation. It is possible to “interpret” meaning, but this is always open to error because it refers to the *perception* of meaning. Such wholly needless complexities are the result of man's attempt to regard himself as both separated and unseparated at the same time. It is impossible to undertake a confusion as fundamental as this without engaging in further confusion. Methodologically, man's mind has been very creative but, as always occurs when method and content are separated, it has not been utilized for anything but an attempt to escape a fundamental and entirely inescapable impasse. This kind of thinking cannot result in a creative outcome, although it has resulted in considerable ingenuity. It is noteworthy, however, that this ingenuity has almost totally divorced him from knowledge. Knowledge does not *require* ingenuity. When we say “the truth shall set you free,” we mean that all this kind of thinking is a waste of time, but that you *are* free of the need to engage in it if you are willing to let it go. Prayer is a way of asking for something. Prayer is the medium of miracles, but the only meaningful prayer is for forgiveness, because those who have been forgiven *have* everything. Once forgiveness has been accepted, prayer in the usual sense becomes utterly meaningless. Essentially, a prayer for forgiveness is nothing more than a request that we may be able to *recognize* something we already have. In electing to perceive instead of to know, man placed himself in a position where he could resemble his Father *only* by miraculously perceiving. He has lost the knowledge that he *himself* is a miracle. Miraculous creation was his Source and also his real function. “God created man in His own image and likeness” is correct in meaning, but the words are open to considerable misinterpretation. This is avoided, however, if “image” is understood to mean “thought” and “likeness” is taken as “of a like quality.” God *did* create the Soul in His own Thought and of a quality like to His own. There is nothing else. Perception, on the other hand, is impossible *without* a belief in “more” and “less.” Perception at every level involves selectivity and is incapable of organization without it. In all types of perception, there is a continual process of accepting and rejecting or organizing and reorganizing, of shifting and changing focus. Evaluation is an essential part of perception, because judgments *must* be made for selection. What happens to perceptions if there *are* no judgments and there is nothing but perfect equality? Perception becomes impossible. Truth can only be *known*. All of it is equally true, and knowing any part of it *is* to know all of it. Only perception involves partial awareness. Knowledge transcends *all* the laws which govern perception because partial knowledge is impossible. It is all one and *has* no separate parts. You who are really one with it need but know *yourself*, and your knowledge is complete. To know God's miracle is to know Him. Forgiveness is the healing of the perception of separation. Correct perception *of each other* is necessary, because minds have willed to see themselves as separate. Each Soul knows God completely. That *is* the miraculous power of the Soul. The fact that each one has this power completely is a fact that is entirely alien to human thinking, in which if anyone has everything, there is nothing *left*. God's miracles are as total as His Thoughts because they *are* His Thoughts. As long as perception lasts, prayer has a place. Since perception rests on lack, those who perceive have not totally accepted the Atonement and given themselves over to truth. Perception *is* a separated state, and a perceiver *does* need healing. Communion, not prayer, is the natural state of those who know. God and His miracles *are* inseparable. How beautiful indeed are the Thoughts of God who live in His light! Your worth is beyond perception because it is beyond doubt. Do not perceive yourself in different lights. *Know* yourself in the One Light where the miracle that is you is perfectly clear.

We have already discussed the Last Judgment in some though insufficient detail. After the Last Judgment there will be no more. This is symbolic only in the sense that everyone is much better off *without* judgment. When the Bible says, “Judge not that ye be not judged” it merely means that if you judge the reality of others at all, you will be unable to avoid judging your own. The choice to judge rather than to know was the cause of the loss of peace. Judgment is the process on which perception, but *not* cognition, rests. We have discussed this before in terms of the selectivity of perception, pointing out that evaluation is its obvious prerequisite. Judgment *always* involves rejection. It is *not* an ability which emphasizes only the positive aspects of what is judged, whether it be in or out of the self. However, what has been perceived and rejected—or judged and found wanting—remains in the unconscious because it *has* been perceived. One of the illusions from which man suffers is the belief that what he judged against has no effect. This cannot be true unless he also believes that what he judged against does not exist. He evidently does *not* believe this, or he would not have judged against it. It does not matter in the end whether you judge right or wrong. Either way, you are placing your belief in the unreal. This cannot be avoided in any type of judgment, because it implies the belief that reality is yours to choose *from*. You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourselves and your brothers totally without judgment. When you recognize what you and your brothers are, you will realize that judging them in *any* way is without meaning. In fact, their meaning is lost to you precisely because you are judging them. All uncertainty comes from a totally fallacious belief that you are under the coercion of judgment. You do not need judgment to organize your life, and you certainly do not need it to organize yourselves. In the presence of knowledge, *all* judgment is automatically suspended, and this is the process which enables recognition to *replace* perception. Man is very fearful of everything he has perceived but has refused to accept. He believes that, because he has refused to accept it, he has lost control over it. This is why he sees it in nightmares or in pleasant disguises in what seem to be his happier dreams. Nothing that you have refused to accept can be brought into awareness. It does *not* follow that it is dangerous, but it *does* follow that you have *made* it dangerous. When you feel tired, it is merely because you have judged yourself as capable of being tired. When you laugh at someone, it is because you have judged him as debased. When you laugh at yourself, you are singularly likely to laugh at others, if only because you cannot tolerate the idea of being more debased than they are. All of this does make you feel tired because it is essentially disheartening. You are not *really* capable of being tired, but you are *very* capable of wearying yourselves. The strain of constant judgment is virtually intolerable. It is a curious thing that any ability which is so debilitating should be so deeply cherished. Yet, if you wish to be the author of reality, which is totally impossible anyway, you *will* insist on holding onto judgment. You will also use the term with considerable fear, believing that judgment will someday be used against *you*. To whatever extent it is used against you, it is due only to your belief in its efficacy as a weapon of defense for your own authority. The issue of authority is really a question of authorship. When an individual has an “authority problem,” it is *always* because he believes he is the author of himself, projects his delusion onto others, and then perceives the situation as one in which people are literally fighting him for his authorship. This is the fundamental error of all those who believe they have usurped the power of God. The belief is very frightening to *them* but hardly troubles God. He is, however, eager to undo it, *not* to punish His Children, but *only* because He knows that it makes them unhappy. Souls were *given* their true Authorship, but men preferred to be anonymous when they chose to separate themselves from their Author. The word “authority” has been one of their most fearful symbols ever since. Authority has been used for great cruelty because, being uncertain of their true Authorship, men believe that their creation was anonymous. This has left them in a position where it *sounds* meaningful to consider the possibility that they must have created themselves. The dispute over authorship has left such uncertainty in the minds of men that some have even doubted whether they really exist at all. Despite the apparent contradiction in this position, it is in one sense more tenable than the view that they created themselves. At least it acknowledges the fact that *some* true authorship is necessary for existence. Only those who give over all desire to reject can *know* that their own rejection is impossible. You have *not* usurped the power of God, but you *have* lost it. Fortunately, when you lose something, it does not mean that the “something” has gone. It merely means that you do not know where it is. Existence does not depend on your ability to identify it nor even to place it. It is perfectly possible to look on reality without judgment and merely *know* that it is there. Peace is a natural heritage of the Soul. Everyone is free to refuse to *accept* his inheritance, but he is *not* free to establish what his inheritance *is*. The problem which everyone must decide is the fundamental question of authorship. All fear comes ultimately and sometimes by way of very devious routes from the denial of Authorship. The offense is never to God, but only to those who deny Him. To deny His Authorship is to deny themselves the reason for their own peace, so that they see themselves only in pieces. This strange perception *is* the authority problem. There is no man who does not feel that he is imprisoned in some way. If this is the result of his own free will, he must regard his will as if it were *not* free, or the obviously circular reasoning involved in his position would be quite apparent. Free will *must* lead to freedom. Judgment *always* imprisons because it separates segments of reality according to the highly unstable scales of desire. Wishes are not facts by definition. To wish is to imply that willing is not sufficient. Yet no one believes that what is wished is as real as what is willed. Instead of, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven” say, “*Will* ye first the Kingdom of Heaven,” and you have said, “I know what I am, and I will to accept my own inheritance.”

Every system of thought must have a starting point. It begins with either a making or a creating, a difference which we have discussed already. Their resemblance lies in their power as *foundations*. Their difference lies in what rests upon them. Both are cornerstones for systems of belief by which men live. It is a mistake to believe that a thought system which is based on lies is weak. *Nothing* made by a Child of God is without power. It is essential to realize this because otherwise you will not understand why you have so much trouble with this course and will be unable to escape from the prisons which you have made for yourselves. You cannot resolve the authority problem by depreciating the power of your minds. To do so is to deceive yourself, and this will hurt you because you *know* the strength of the mind. You also know that you *cannot* weaken it, any more than you can weaken God. The “devil” is a frightening concept, because he is thought of as extremely powerful and extremely active. He is perceived as a force in combat with God, battling Him for possession of the Souls He created. He deceives by lies and builds kingdoms of his own in which everything is in direct opposition to God. Yet he *attracts* men rather than repels them, and they are seen as willing to “sell” him their Souls in return for gifts they *recognize* are of no real worth. This makes absolutely no sense. The whole picture is one in which man acts in a way he *himself* realizes is self-destructive but which he does not choose to correct and therefore perceives the cause as beyond his control. We have discussed the fall, or separation, before, but its meaning must be clearly understood without symbols. The separation is not symbolic. It is an order of reality or a system of thought that is real enough in time, though *not* in eternity. All beliefs are real to the believer. The fruit of only *one* tree was “forbidden” to man in his symbolic garden. But *God* could not have forbidden it or it could not have *been* eaten. If God knows His Children, and I assure you that He does, would He have put them in a position where their own destruction was possible? The “tree” which was forbidden was named the “tree of knowledge.” Yet God created knowledge and gave it freely to His creations. The symbolism here has been given many interpretations, but you may be sure that *any* interpretation which sees either God or His creations as capable of destroying their own purpose is in error. Eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge is a symbolic expression for incorporating into the self the ability for self-creating. This is the *only* sense in which God and His Souls are *not* co-creators. The belief that they are is implicit in the “self concept,” a concept now made acceptable by its *weakness* and explained by a tendency of the self to create an *image* of itself. Its fear aspect is often ascribed to fear of retaliation by a “father figure,” a particularly curious idea in view of the fact that no one uses the term to refer to the physical father. It refers to an *image* of a father in relation to an *image* of the self. Images are perceived, *not* known. Knowledge cannot deceive, but perception *can*. Man can perceive himself as self-creating, but he cannot do more than *believe* it. He *cannot* make it true. And, as we said before, when you finally perceive correctly, you can only be glad that you cannot. But until then, the belief that you can is the central foundation stone in your thought system, and all your defenses are used to attack ideas which might bring it to light. You still believe you are images of your own creation. Your minds are split with your Souls on this point, and there is *no* resolution while you believe the one thing that is literally inconceivable. That is why you *cannot* create and are filled with fear about what you make. The mind can make the belief in separation *very* real and *very* fearful, and this belief *is* the “devil.” It is powerful, active, destructive, and clearly in opposition to God because it literally denies His Fatherhood. Never underestimate the power of this denial. Look at your lives and see what the devil has made. But know that this making will surely dissolve in the light of truth, because its *foundation* is a lie. Your creation by God is the *only* foundation which cannot be shaken because the light is *in* it. Your starting point is truth, and you must return to this beginning. Much has been perceived since then, but nothing else has happened. That is why your Souls are still in peace, even though your minds are in conflict. You have not yet gone back far enough, and that is why you become so fearful. As you approach the beginning, you feel the fear of the destruction of your thought system upon you, as if it were the fear of death. There *is* no death, but there *is* a belief in death. The Bible says that the branch that bears no fruit will be cut off and will wither away. Be glad! The light *will* shine from the true Foundation of Life, and your own thought system *will* stand corrected. It *cannot* stand otherwise. You who fear salvation are *willing* death. Life and death, light and darkness, knowledge and perception are irreconcilable. To believe that they can be reconciled is to believe that God and man can *not*. Only the oneness of knowledge is conflictless. Your kingdom is not of this world because it was given you from *beyond* this world. Only *in* this world is the idea of an authority problem meaningful. The world is not left by death but by truth, and truth can be known by all those for whom the Kingdom was created and for whom it waits.