Five

To heal is to make happy. I have told you before to think how many opportunities you have to gladden yourselves and how many you have refused. This is exactly the same as telling you that you have refused to heal yourselves. The light that belongs to you is the light of joy. Radiance is not associated with sorrow. Depression is often contagious but, although it may affect those who come in contact with it, they do not yield to the influence whole-heartedly. But joy calls forth an integrated willingness to share in it and thus promotes the mind's natural impulse *to respond as one*. Those who attempt to heal without being wholly joyous themselves call forth different kinds of responses at the same time and thus deprive others of the joy of responding whole-heartedly. To be whole-hearted, you *must* be happy. If fear and love cannot coexist and if it is impossible to be wholly fearful and remain alive, then the only possible whole state *is* that of love. There is no difference between love and joy. Therefore, the only possible whole state is the wholly joyous. To heal or to make joyous is therefore the same as to integrate and to *make one*. That is why it makes no difference to what part or by what part of the Sonship the healing is done. *Every* part benefits and benefits equally. *You* are being blessed by every beneficent thought of any of your brothers anywhere. You should want to bless them in return out of gratitude. You do not have to know them individually or they you. The light is so strong that it radiates throughout the Sonship and returns thanks to the Father for radiating His joy upon it. Only God's holy Children are worthy to be channels of His beautiful joy, because only they are beautiful enough to hold it by sharing it. It is impossible for a Child of God to love his neighbor *except* as himself. That is why the healer's prayer is: *Let me know this brother as I know myself*.

Healing is an act of thought by which two minds perceive their oneness and become glad. This gladness calls to every part of the Sonship to rejoice with them and lets God Himself go out into them and through them. Only the healed mind can experience revelation with lasting effect, because revelation is an experience of pure joy. If you do not choose to be wholly joyous, your mind cannot *have* what it does not choose to *be*. Remember that the Soul knows no difference between “being” and “having.” The higher mind thinks according to the laws which the Soul obeys and therefore honors only the laws of God. To Him, getting is meaningless and giving is all. Having everything, the Soul *holds* everything *by* giving it and thus creates as the Father created. If you think about it, you will see that, while this kind of thinking is totally alien to having *things*, even to the lower mind it is quite comprehensible in connection with *ideas*. If you share a physical possession, you *do* divide its ownership. If you share an idea, however, you do not lessen it. All of it is still yours, although all of it has been given away. Further, if the person to whom you give it accepts it as *his*, he reinforces it in *your* mind, and thus *increases* it. If you can accept the concept that the world *is* one of ideas, the whole belief in the false association which the ego makes between giving and *losing* is gone. Let us start our process of reawakening with just a few simple concepts: *Thoughts **increase** by being given away. The more who believe in them, the **stronger** they become. **Everything** is an idea. How, then, is it possible that giving and losing **can** be meaningfully associated?* This is the invitation to the Holy Spirit. I told you that I could reach up and bring the Holy Spirit down to you, but I can bring Him to you *only* at your own invitation. The Holy Spirit is nothing more than your own right mind. He was also mine. The Bible says, “May the mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus,” and uses this as a *blessing*. It is the blessing of miracle-mindedness. It asks that you may think as I thought, joining with me in Christ-thinking. The Holy Spirit is the only part of the Holy Trinity which is symbolic. He is referred to in the Bible as the Healer, the Comforter, and the Guide. He is also described as something “separate,” apart from the Father and from the Son. I myself said, “If I go I will send you another comforter, and He will abide with you.” The Holy Spirit is a difficult concept to grasp precisely because it *is* symbolic and therefore open to many different interpretations. As a man and as one of God's creations, my right thinking, which came from the Universal Inspiration which *is* the Holy Spirit, taught me first and foremost that this Inspiration is for all. I could not have It myself *without* knowing this. The word “know” is proper in this context because the Holy Inspiration is so close to knowledge that it calls it forth; or better, allows it to come. We have spoken before of the higher or the “true” perception, which is so close to truth that God Himself can flow across the little gap. Knowledge is always ready to flow everywhere, but it cannot oppose. Therefore, you can obstruct it, although you can never lose it. The Holy Spirit is the Christ Mind, which senses the knowledge that lies beyond perception. It came into being with the separation as a protection, inspiring the beginning of the Atonement at the same time. Before that, there was no need for healing and no one was comfortless.

God honored even the miscreations of His Children because they had made them, but He also blessed them with a way of thinking that could raise their perceptions until they became so lofty that they could reach almost back to Him. The Holy Spirit is the Mind of the Atonement. It represents a state of mind that comes close enough to One-Mindedness that transfer to it is at last possible. Transfer depends on common elements in the old learning and the new situation to which it is transferred. Perception is not knowledge, but it can be transferred *to* knowledge or *cross over* into it. It might even be more helpful here to use the literal meaning of “carried” over since the last step is taken by God. The Holy Spirit, the shared Inspiration of all the Sonship, induces a kind of perception in which many elements are like those in the Kingdom of Heaven itself. First, its universality is perfectly clear, and no one who receives it could ever believe for one instant that sharing it involves anything *but* gain. Second, it is incapable of attack and is therefore truly open. This means that, although it does not engender knowledge, it does not *obstruct* it in any way. \[Third, it is an unequivocal call to love. Every other voice is still.\] There is a point at which sufficient quantitative changes produce real qualitative differences. The next point requires real understanding, because it is the point at which the shift occurs. Finally, it points the way *beyond* the healing which it brings and leads the mind beyond its own integration into the paths of creation. Healing is not creating; it is reparation. The Holy Spirit promotes healing by looking *beyond* it to what the Children of God were before healing was needed and will be when they have *been* healed. This alteration of the time sequence should be quite familiar, because it is very similar to the shift in time perception which the miracle introduces. The Holy Spirit is the *motivation* for miracle-mindedness, the will to *heal* the separation by letting it go. This will is *in* you, because God placed it in your mind, and although you can keep it asleep, you cannot obliterate it. God Himself keeps this will alive by transmitting it from His Mind to yours as long as there is time. It is partly His and partly yours. The miracle itself is just this fusion or union of will between Father and Son. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of joy. He is the Call to return with which God blessed the minds of His separated Sons. This is the vocation of the mind. The mind had no calling until the separation, because before that it had only *being* and would not have understood the call to right thinking. The Holy Spirit was God's Answer to the separation, the means by which the Atonement could repair until the whole mind returned to creating. The Atonement and the separation began at the same time. When man made the ego, God placed in him the call to joy. This call is so strong that the ego always dissolves at its sound. That is why you can choose to listen to two voices within you. One you made yourself and that one is not of God. But the other is given you *by* God Who asks you only to listen to it. The Holy Spirit is in you in a very literal sense. His is the Voice that calls you back to where you were before and will be again.

It is possible even in this world to hear *only* that Voice and no other. It takes effort and great willingness to learn. It is the final lesson that I learned, and God's Sons are as equal as learners as they are as Souls. The Voice of the Holy Spirit *is* the call to Atonement or the restoration of the integrity of the mind. When the Atonement is complete and the whole Sonship is healed, there will be no call to return, but what God creates is eternal. The Holy Spirit will remain with the Sons of God to bless *their* creations and keep them in the light of joy. You *are* the Kingdom of Heaven, but you have let the belief in darkness enter your minds, and so you need a new light. The Holy Spirit is the radiance that you must let banish the idea of darkness. His is the glory before which dissociation falls away and the Kingdom of Heaven breaks through into its own. Before the separation you did not need guidance. You *knew* as you will know again, but as you do *not* know now. God does not guide because He can share only perfect knowledge. Guidance is evaluative, because it implies that there is a *right* way and also a *wrong* way, one to be chosen and the other to be avoided. By choosing one, you give up the other. This *is* a conflict state. It *means* that knowledge has been lost, because knowledge is sure. God is not in you in a literal sense; *you* are part of *Him*. When you chose to leave Him, He gave you a Voice to speak *for* Him because He could no longer share His knowledge with you without hindrance. Direct communication was broken because you had made another voice through another will. The Holy Spirit calls you both to remember and to forget. You have chosen to be in a state of opposition in which opposites are possible. As a result, there *are* choices which you must make. In the holy state, the will is free in the sense that its *creative* power is unlimited, but choice itself is meaningless. Freedom to choose is the same *power* as freedom to create, but its *application* is different. Choosing *means* divided will. The Holy Spirit is one way of choosing. This way is in you because there is also *another* way. God did not leave His Children comfortless, even though they chose to leave Him. The voice they put in their minds was *not* the voice of His Will for which the Holy Spirit speaks. The call to return is stronger than the call to depart, but it speaks in a different way. The Voice of the Holy Spirit does not command, because it is incapable of arrogance. It does not demand, because it does not seek control. It does not overcome, because it does not attack. It merely *reminds*. It is compelling only because of what it reminds you *of*. It brings to your mind the *other* way, remaining quiet even in the midst of the turmoil you have made for yourselves. The Voice for God is always quiet, because it speaks of peace. Yet peace is stronger than war because it heals. War is division, not increase. No one gains from strife. “What profiteth it a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own Soul?” That means that if he listens to the wrong voice, he has *lost sight* of his Soul. He *cannot* lose it, but he *can* not know it. It is therefore *lost to him* until he chooses right. The Holy Spirit is your Guide in choosing. He is the part of your mind which *always* speaks for the right choice because He speaks for God. He is your remaining communication with God, which you can interrupt but cannot destroy. The Holy Spirit is the way in which God's Will can be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Both Heaven and earth are in *you*, because the call of both is in your will and therefore in your mind. The Voice for God comes from your own altars to Him. These altars are not things; they are *devotions*. Yet you have other devotions now. Your divided devotion has given you the two voices, and you must choose at which altar you will to serve. The call you answer now is an evaluation because it is a *decision*. The decision itself is very simple. It is made on the basis of which call is worth more to you. My mind will always be like yours, because we were created as equals. It was only my *decision* that gave me all power in Heaven and earth. My only gift to you is to help you make the same decision *for yourself*. The will for this decision is the will to *share* it, because the decision itself *is* the decision to share. It is *made by giving* and is therefore the *one* act of mind that resembles true creation. You understand the role of “models” in the learning process and the importance of the models you value and choose to follow in determining what you will to learn. I am your model for decision. By deciding for God, I showed you that this decision *can* be made and that *you* can make it. I promised you that the mind that made the decision for me is also in *you* and that you can let it change you just as it changed me. This mind is unequivocal, because it hears only *one* voice and answers in only *one* way. You are the light of the world with me. Rest does not come from sleeping but from waking. The Holy Spirit is the call to awake and be glad. The world is very tired, because it *is* the idea of weariness. Our task is the joyous one of waking it to the Call for God. Everyone will answer the Call of the Holy Spirit, or the Sonship cannot be as one. What better vocation could there be for any part of the Kingdom than to restore it to the perfect integration that can make it whole? Hear only this through the Holy Spirit within you, and teach your brothers to listen as I am teaching you. When you are tempted by the wrong voice, call on me to remind you how to heal by sharing my decision *and making it stronger*. As we share this goal we increase its power to attract the whole Sonship and to bring it back into the Oneness in which it was created. Remember that “yoke” means “join together” and “burden” means “message.” Let us reconsider the Biblical statement, “My yoke is easy and my burden light” in this way: “Let us join together, for my message is light.” I came into your minds because you had grown vaguely aware of the fact that there *is* another way or another Voice. Having given this invitation to the Holy Spirit, I could come to provide the model for *how to think*. Psychology has become the study of *behavior*, but no one denies the basic law that behavior is a response to *motivation*, and motivation is will. I have enjoined you to behave as I behaved, but we must respond to the same mind to do this. This mind is the Holy Spirit, whose will is for God always. He teaches you how to keep me as the model for your thought and to behave like me as a result. The power of our joint motivation is beyond belief but *not* beyond accomplishment. What we can accomplish together *has* no limits, because the Call for God *is* the call to the unlimited. Child of God, my message is for *you* to hear and give away as you answer the Holy Spirit within you.

The way to learn to know your brother is by perceiving the Holy Spirit in him. We have already said that the Holy Spirit is the bridge or thought-transfer of perception to knowledge, so we can use the terms as if they were related, because in His Mind they *are*. The relationship *must* be in His Mind because, unless it were, the separation between the two ways of thinking would not be open to healing. He is part of the Holy Trinity because His Mind is partly yours and also partly God's. This needs clarification, not in statement, since we have said it before, but in *experience*. The Holy Spirit is the *idea* of healing. Being thought, the idea *gains as it is shared*. Being the Call *for* God, it is also the idea *of* God. Since *you* are part of God, it is also the idea of *yourself* as well as of all the parts of God. The idea of the Holy Spirit shares the property of other ideas, because it follows the laws of the Universe of which it is a part. Therefore, it is strengthened by being given away. It increases in *you* as you give it to your brothers. Since thoughts do not have to be conscious to exist, your brother does not have to be aware of the Holy Spirit either in himself or in you for this miracle to occur. Your brother may have dissociated the Call for God, just as *you* have. The dissociation is healed in *both* of you as *you* become aware of the Call for God in him and thus acknowledge its *being*. There are two ways of seeing your brother which are diametrically opposed to each other. They must both be in *your* mind, because *you* are the perceiver. They must also be in *his*, because you are perceiving *him*. See him through the Holy Spirit in *his* mind, and you will recognize Him in *yours*. What you acknowledge in your brother you *are* acknowledging in yourself, and what you share you strengthen. The Voice of the Holy Spirit *is* weak in you. That is why you *must* share it. It must be *increased* in strength before *you* can hear it. It is impossible to hear it in yourself while it is so weak in your *own* mind. It is not weak in itself, but it *is* limited by your unwillingness to hear it. Will itself is an idea and is therefore strengthened by being shared. If you make the mistake of looking for the Holy Spirit in yourself alone, your meditations will frighten you because by *adopting* the ego's viewpoint you are undertaking an ego-alien journey with the ego as *guide*. This is *bound* to produce fear. Delay is of the ego, because time is *its* concept. Delay is obviously a time idea. Both time and delay are meaningless in eternity. We have said before that the Holy Spirit is God's *Answer* to the ego. Everything of which the Holy Spirit reminds you is in direct opposition to the ego's notions, because true and false perceptions are *themselves* opposed. The Holy Spirit has the task of *undoing* what the ego has made. He undoes it in the same realm of discourse in which the ego itself operates, or the mind would be unable to understand the change. We have repeatedly emphasized that one level of the mind is not understandable to another. So it is with the ego and the Soul, with time and eternity. Eternity is an idea of God, so the Soul understands it perfectly. Time is a belief of the ego, so the lower mind, which *is* the ego's domain, accepts it without question. The only aspect of time which is really eternal is *now*. That is what we really mean when we say that “now is the only time.” The literal nature of this statement does not mean anything to the ego, which interprets it at best to mean “don't worry about the future.” That is not what it really means at all. The Holy Spirit is the Mediator between the interpretations of the ego and the knowledge of the Soul. His ability to deal with symbols enables Him to work *against* the ego's beliefs in its own language. His equal ability to look *beyond* symbols into eternity also enables Him to understand the laws of God, for which He speaks. He can thus perform the function of *reinterpreting* what the ego makes, *not* by destruction but by *understanding*. Understanding is light, and light leads to knowledge. The Holy Spirit is *in* light because He is in you who *are* light, but you yourselves do not know this. It is therefore the task of the Holy Spirit to reinterpret *you* on behalf of God. You cannot understand yourselves alone. This is because you have no meaning *apart* from your rightful place in the Sonship and the rightful place of the Sonship \[is\] God. This is your life, your eternity, and *yourself*. It is of this that the Holy Spirit reminds you. It is this that the Holy Spirit *sees*. This vision invariably frightens the ego because it is so calm. Peace is the ego's greatest enemy because, according to *its* interpretation of reality, war is the guarantee of its survival. The ego becomes strong in strife. If you believe there *is* strife, you will react viciously because the idea of danger has entered your mind. The idea itself *is* an appeal to the ego. The Holy Spirit is as vigilant as the ego to the call of danger, opposing it with His strength, just as the ego *welcomes* it with all its might. The Holy Spirit counters this welcome by welcoming peace. Peace and eternity are as closely related as are time and war. Perception as well as knowledge derives meaning from relationships. Those which you accept are the foundations of your beliefs. The separation is merely another term for a split mind. It was not an act, but a *thought*. Therefore, the idea of separation can be given away, just as the idea of unity can. Either way, the idea will be strengthened *in the mind of the giver*. The ego is the symbol of separation, just as the Holy Spirit is the symbol of peace. What you perceive in others, you are strengthening in *yourself*. You let your mind misperceive, but the Holy Spirit lets your mind reinterpret its own misperceptions. The Holy Spirit is the perfect teacher. He uses only what your minds *already* understand to teach you that you do *not* understand it. The Holy Spirit can deal with an unwilling learner without going counter to his will because part of his will *is* still for God. Despite the ego's attempts to conceal this part, it is still much stronger than the ego, even though the ego does not recognize it. The Holy Spirit recognizes it perfectly, because it is His own dwelling place or the place in the mind where He is at home. *You* are at home there, too, because it is a place of peace, and peace is of God. You who are part of God are not at home *except* in His peace. If peace is eternal, you are at home only in eternity. The ego made the world as *it* perceives it, but the Holy Spirit, the *reinterpreter* of what the ego made, sees it only as a teaching device for bringing you home. The Holy Spirit must perceive time and reinterpret it into the timeless. The mind must be led into eternity *through* time because, having made time, it is capable of perceiving its opposite. The Holy Spirit must work through opposites, because He must work with and for a mind that *is* in opposition. Correct and learn and be open to learning. You have *not* made truth, but truth can still set you free. Look as the Holy Spirit looks, and understand as He understands. His understanding looks back to God in remembrance of me. He is in Holy Communion always, and He is part of *you*. He is your Guide to salvation, because He holds the remembrance of things past and to come. He holds this gladness gently in your minds, asking only that you *increase* it in His name by sharing it, to increase His joy in *you*.

You must have noticed how often I have used your own ideas to help you. You have learned to be a loving, wise, and very understanding therapist *except for yourself*. That exception has given you more than perception for others because of what you saw in *them* but *less* than knowledge of your real relationships *to* them, because you did not accept them as *part* of you. Understanding *is* beyond perception because it introduces meaning. It is, however, below knowledge even though it can grow *towards* it. It is possible, with great effort, to understand someone else to some extent and to be quite helpful to him, but the effort is misdirected. The misdirection is quite apparent; it is directed away from *you*. This does not mean that it is *lost* to you, but it *does* mean that you are not aware of it. I have saved all your kindnesses and every loving thought you have had. I have purified them of the errors which hid their light and have kept them for you in their own perfect radiance. They are beyond destruction and beyond guilt. They came from the Holy Spirit within *you*, and we know what God creates is eternal. What fear has hidden still is part of you. Joining the Atonement, which I have repeatedly asked you to do, is always a way *out* of fear. This does not mean that you can safely fail to acknowledge anything that is true. However, the Holy Spirit will not fail to help you reinterpret everything that you perceive as fearful and teach you that *only* what is loving *is* true. Truth is beyond your ability to destroy but entirely within your grasp. It belongs to you because you created it. It is yours because it is a part of you, just as you are part of God because He created *you*. The Atonement is the *guarantee* of the safety of the Kingdom. Nothing good is lost because it comes from the Holy Spirit, the Voice for creation. Nothing that is *not* good was ever created and therefore *cannot* be protected. What the ego makes, it *keeps to itself*, and so it is without strength. Its unshared existence does not die; it was merely never born. Real birth is not a beginning; it is a *continuing*. Everything that can continue has *been* born, but it can *increase* as you are willing to return the part of your mind that needs healing to the higher part and thus render your creating undivided. As a therapist, you yourself tell your patients that the real difference between neurotic and “healthy” guilt feelings is that neurotic guilt feelings *do not help anyone*. This distinction is wise though incomplete. Let us make the distinction a little sharper now. Neurotic guilt feelings are a device of the ego for “atoning” without sharing and for asking pardon without change. The ego *never* calls for *real* Atonement and cannot tolerate forgiveness, which *is* change. Your concept of “healthy guilt feelings” has merit, but without the concept of the Atonement, it lacks the healing potential it holds. You made the distinction in terms of feelings, which led to a decision not to *repeat* the error, which is only *part* of healing. Your concept lacked the idea of *undoing* it. What you were really advocating, then, was adopting a policy of sharing without a real *foundation*. I have come to *give* you the foundation, so your own thoughts can make you *really* free. You have carried the burden of the ideas you did not share and which were therefore too weak to increase, but you did not recognize how to undo their existence *because* you had made them. You *cannot* cancel out your past errors alone. They will *not* disappear from your mind without remedy. The remedy is *not* of your making, any more than *you* are. The Atonement cannot be understood except as a *pure act of sharing*. That is what is meant when we said it is possible even in this world to listen to *one* voice. If you are part of God and the Sonship is one, you *cannot* be limited to the “self” the ego sees. Every loving thought held in *any* part of the Sonship belongs to every part. It is shared *because* it is loving. Sharing is God's way of creating and also *yours*. Your ego can keep you in exile *from* the Kingdom, but in the Kingdom itself it has no power. You have become willing to receive my messages as I give them without interference by the ego, so we can clarify an earlier point. We said that you will one day teach as much as you learn and that will keep you in balance. The time is now because you have *let* it be now. You cannot learn *except* by teaching. I heard one voice because I had learned that learning is attained *by* teaching. I understood that *I could not atone for myself alone*. Listening to one voice means the will to *share* the voice in order to hear it yourself. The mind that was in me is still irresistibly drawn to every mind created by God, because God's Wholeness *is* the wholeness of His Son. Turning the other cheek does *not* mean that you should submit to violence without protest. It means that you cannot *be* hurt and do not want to show your brother anything *except* your wholeness. Show him that he *cannot* hurt you and hold nothing against him, or you hold it against yourself. Teaching is done in many ways: by formal means, by guidance, and above all *by example*. Teaching is therapy, because it means the *sharing* of ideas and the awareness that to share them is to *strengthen* them. The union of the Sonship *is* its protection. The ego cannot prevail against the Kingdom *because* it is united, and the ego fades away and is undone in the presence of the attraction of the parts of the Sonship, which hear the call of the Holy Spirit to be as One. I cannot forget my need to teach what I have learned, which arose in me *because* I learned it. I call upon you to teach what you have learned, because by so doing *you* can depend on it. Make it dependable in my name, because my name is the name of God's Son. What I learned I give you freely, and the mind which was in me rejoices as *you* choose to hear it. The Holy Spirit atones in all of us by *undoing* and thus lifts the burden you have placed in your mind. By following Him, He leads you back to God where you belong, and how can you find this way except by taking your brother with you? My part in the Atonement is not complete until *you* join it and give it away. As you teach, so shall you learn. I will never leave you or forsake you, because to forsake you would be to forsake myself and God who created me. You will forsake yourselves and God if you forsake *any* of your brothers. You are more than your brother's keeper. In fact, you do not *want* to keep him. You must learn to see him as he is and *know* that he belongs to God as you do. How could you treat your brother better than by rendering unto God the things which are God's? Ideas do not *leave* the mind which thought them to have a separate being, nor do separate thoughts conflict with one another in space, because they do not occupy space at all. However, human ideas *can* conflict in content, because they occur at different levels and include opposite thoughts at the *same* level. *It is impossible to share opposing thoughts*. The Holy Spirit does not *let* you forsake your brothers. Therefore, you can really share *only* the parts of your thoughts which are of Him and which He also keeps for *you*. And of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. All the rest remains with you until He has reinterpreted them in the light of the Kingdom, making them, too, worthy of being shared. When they have been sufficiently purified, He lets you give them away. The will to share them *is* their purification. The Atonement gives you the power of a healed mind, but the power to create is of God. Therefore, those who have been forgiven must devote themselves first to healing, because having *received* the idea of healing, they must *give* it to *hold* it. The full power of creation cannot be expressed as long as *any* of God's ideas withhold it from the Kingdom. The joint will of *all* the Sonship is the only creator that can create like the Father, because only the complete can think completely, and the thinking of God lacks nothing. Everything you think that is not through the Holy Spirit *is* lacking. How can you who are so holy suffer? All your past except its beauty is gone, and nothing is left except a blessing. You can indeed depart in peace, because I have loved you as I loved myself. You go *with* my blessing and *for* my blessing. Hold it and share it, that it may always be ours. I place the peace of God in your heart and in your hands, to hold and share. The heart is pure to hold it and the hands are strong to give it. We cannot lose. My judgment is as strong as the wisdom of God, in Whose heart and hands we have our being. His quiet Children are His blessed Sons. The thoughts of God are with you.

Perhaps some of our concepts will become clearer and more personally meaningful if the ego's use of guilt is clarified. The ego has a purpose, just as the Holy Spirit has. The ego's purpose is *fear* because *only* the fearful can *be* egotistic. The ego's logic is as impeccable as that of the Holy Spirit because your mind has all the means at its disposal to side with Heaven or earth, as it elects. But again, let us remember that both are in *you*. In Heaven there is no guilt, because the Kingdom is attained through the Atonement, which releases you to create. The word “create” is appropriate here because, once what *you* have made is undone by the Holy Spirit, the blessed residue is restored and therefore continues in creation. What is truly blessed is incapable of giving rise to guilt and *must* give rise to joy. This makes it invulnerable to the ego because its peace is unassailable. It is invulnerable to disruption *because* it is whole. Guilt is *always* disruptive. Anything that engenders fear is divisive because it obeys the law of division. If the ego is the symbol of the separation, it is also the symbol of guilt. Guilt is more than merely not of God. It is the symbol of the *attack* on God. This is a totally meaningless concept *except* to the ego, but do not underestimate the power of the ego's belief in it. This is the belief from which *all* guilt really stems. The ego *is* the part of the mind which believes in division. How can part of God detach itself *without* believing it is attacking Him? We spoke before of the authority problem as involving the concept of *usurping* God's power. The ego believes that this is what *you* did because it believes it *is* you. It follows, then, that if you identify *with* the ego, you *must* perceive yourself as guilty. Whenever you respond to your ego, you *will* experience guilt and you *will* fear punishment. The ego is quite literally a fearful thought. However ridiculous the idea of attacking God may be to the *sane* mind, never forget that the ego is *not* sane. It represents a delusional system, and it speaks *for* it. Listening to the ego's voice *means* that you believe it is possible to attack God. You believe that a part of Him has been torn away by *you*. The classic picture of fear of retaliation *from without* then follows because the severity of the guilt is so acute that it *must* be projected. Although Freud was wrong about the basic conflict itself, he was very accurate in describing its effects. Whatever you accept *into* your mind has reality for you. It is, however, only your *acceptance* of it that makes it real. If you enthrone the ego in it, the fact that you have accepted it or allowed it to enter *makes* it your reality. This is because the mind, as God created it, *is* capable of creating reality. We said before that you must learn to think *with* God. To think with Him is to think *like* Him. This engenders joy, not guilt, because it is natural. Guilt is a sure sign that your thinking is *un*natural. Perverted thinking will *always* be attended with guilt because it *is* the belief in sin. The ego does not perceive sin as a lack of love. It perceives sin as a *positive act of assault*. This is an interpretation which is necessary to the ego's survival, because as soon as you regard sin as a *lack* you will automatically attempt to remedy the situation. And you will succeed. The ego regards this as doom, but *you* must learn to regard it as freedom. The guiltless mind *cannot* suffer. Being sane, it heals the body because *it* has been healed. The sane mind cannot conceive of illness, because it cannot conceive of attacking anyone or anything. We said before that illness is a form of magic. It might be better to say that it is a form of magical solution. The ego believes that by punishing *itself* it will mitigate the punishment of God. Yet even in this it is arrogant. It attributes to God a punishing intent, and then takes over this intent as its *own* prerogative. It tries to usurp *all* the functions of God as it perceives them, because it recognizes that only total allegiance can be trusted. The ego cannot *oppose* the laws of God any more than *you* can, but it can *interpret* them according to what it wants, just as *you* can. That is why the question, “What *do* you want?” must be answered. You *are* answering it every minute and every second, and each moment of decision is a judgment which is anything *but* ineffectual. Its effects will follow automatically *until the decision is changed*. This is repeated here because you have not learned it. But again, your decision can be *unmade* as well as made. Remember, though, that the *alternatives* are unalterable. The Holy Spirit, like the ego, is a decision. Together they constitute all the alternatives which the mind can accept and obey. The ego and the Holy Spirit are the *only* choices open to you. God created one, and so you *cannot* eradicate it. *You* made the other, and so you *can*. *Only* what God creates is irreversible and unchangeable. What *you* have made can always be changed, because when you do not think *like* God you are not really thinking at all. Delusional ideas are not real thoughts, although you *can* believe in them. But you are wrong. The function of thought comes *from* God and is *in* God. As part of His Thought, you cannot think *apart* from Him. Irrational thought is a thought *disorder*. God Himself orders your thought because your thought was created *by* Him. Guilt feelings are always a sign that you do not know this. They also show that you believe you can think apart from God *and want to*. Every thought disorder is attended by guilt at its inception and maintained by guilt in its continuance. Guilt is inescapable for those who believe they order their own thought and must therefore obey its orders. This makes them feel *responsible* for their mind errors, without recognizing that by *accepting* this responsibility they are really reacting irresponsibly. If the *sole* responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself, and I assure you that it is, then the responsibility for what is atoned *for* cannot *be* yours. The dilemma cannot be resolved except by accepting the solution of *undoing*. You *would* be responsible for the effects of all your wrong thinking if it could not be undone. The purpose of the Atonement is to save the past in purified form only. If you accept the remedy for a thought disorder, and a remedy whose efficacy is beyond doubt, how can its symptoms remain? You have reason to question the validity of symptom cure, but *no one* believes that the symptoms can remain if the underlying *cause* is removed.

The *continuing* will to remain separated is the only possible reason for continuing guilt feelings. We have said this before, but we did not emphasize the destructive results of this decision at that time. *Any* decision of the mind will affect both behavior *and* experience. What you will, you *expect*. This is not delusional. Your mind *does* create your future, and it can turn it back to full creation at any minute *if it accepts the Atonement first*. It will also turn back to full creation the instant it has done so. Having given up its thought disorder, the proper ordering of thought becomes quite apparent. God in His knowledge is not waiting, but His Kingdom is bereft while *you* wait. All the Sons of God are waiting for your return, just as *you* are waiting for *theirs*. Delay does not matter in eternity, but it *is* tragic in time. You have elected to be in time rather than eternity and have therefore changed your belief in your status. Yet your election is both free and alterable. You do not belong in time. Your place is *only* in eternity, where God Himself placed you forever. Guilt feelings are the *preservers* of time. They induce fears of future retaliation or abandonment and thus ensure that the future will remain like the past. This is the ego's continuity and gives it a false sense of security through the belief that you cannot escape from it. But you can and *must*. God offers you the continuity of eternity in exchange. When you choose to make this exchange, you will simultaneously exchange guilt for joy, viciousness for love, and pain for peace. My role is only to unchain your will and make it free. Your ego cannot accept this freedom and will oppose your free decision at every possible moment and in every possible way. And as its maker, you recognize what it can do because you *gave* it the power to do it. The mind does indeed know its power, because the mind does indeed know God. Remember the Kingdom always, and remember that you who are part of the Kingdom *cannot* be lost. The mind that was in me *is* in you, for God creates with perfect fairness. Let the Holy Spirit remind you always of His fairness, and let me teach you how to share it with your brothers. How else can the chance to claim it for yourself be given you? What you do not understand is that the two voices speak for different interpretations of the same thing simultaneously, or almost simultaneously, for the ego always speaks first. Alternate interpretations were unnecessary until the first one was made, and speaking itself was unnecessary before the ego was made. The ego speaks in judgment and the Holy Spirit reverses its decisions, much as the Supreme Court has the power to reverse the lower courts' decisions about the laws of this world. The ego's decisions are *always* wrong, because they are based on a complete fallacy which they were made to uphold. *Nothing* the ego perceives is interpreted correctly. Not only does it cite Scripture for its purpose, but it even interprets Scripture as a witness for itself. The Bible is a fearful thing to the ego because of its prejudiced judgment. Perceiving it as fearful, it interprets it fearfully. Having made *you* afraid, you do not appeal to the Higher Court, because you believe its judgment would be *against* you. We need cite only a few examples to see how the ego's interpretations have misled you. A favorite ego quotation is “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.” Another is “Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord.” Still another is “I will visit the sins of the father unto the third and fourth generation,” and also “The wicked shall perish.” There are many others, but if you will let the Holy Spirit reinterpret these in His own light, they will suffice. “As ye sow, so shall ye reap” merely means that what you believe to be worth cultivating you will cultivate in yourself. Your judgment of what is worthy *makes* it worthy for you. “Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord” is easily explained if you remember that ideas increase only by being shared. This quotation therefore emphasizes the fact that vengeance *cannot* be shared. Give it therefore to the Holy Spirit, who will undo it in you because it does not belong in your mind, which is part of God. “I will visit the sins of the fathers unto the third and fourth generation,” as interpreted by the ego, is particularly vicious. It is used, in fact, as an attempt to guarantee its survival beyond itself. Actually, all the quotation means is that the Holy Spirit in later generations retains the power to interpret *correctly* what former generations have thought and thus release *their* thoughts from the ability to produce fear anywhere in the Sonship. “The wicked shall perish” is merely a statement of fact if the word “perish” is properly understood. Every loveless thought *must* be undone. Even the word “undone” is fearful to the ego, which interprets “I am undone” as “I am destroyed.” The ego will *not* be destroyed because it is part of your thought, but because it is uncreative and therefore unsharing, it *will* be reinterpreted entirely to release you from fear. The part of your thought which you have given to the ego will merely return to the Kingdom, where your whole mind *belongs*. The ego is a form of arrest, but arrest is merely delay. It does *not* involve the concept of punishment, although the ego welcomes that interpretation. You *can* delay the completion of the Kingdom, but you *cannot* introduce the concept of assault into it. When I said, “I am come as a light into the world,” I surely came to share the light with you. Remember the symbolic reference we made before to the ego's dark glass, and remember also that we said, “Do not look there.” It is still true that “where you look to find yourself is up to you.” The Higher Court will *not* condemn you. It will merely dismiss the case against you. There can *be* no case against a Child of God, and every witness to guilt in God's creations is bearing false witness to God Himself. Appeal everything you believe gladly to God's own Higher Court, because it speaks for Him and therefore speaks truly. It will dismiss the case against you, however carefully *you* have built it. The case may be foolproof, but it is *not* God-proof. The Voice for God will not hear it at all because He can only witness truly. His verdict will always be “Thine is the Kingdom” because He was *given* you to remind you of what you are. Your patience with each other is your patience with yourselves. Is not a Child of God *worth* patience? I have shown you infinite patience because my will *is* that of our Father, from Whom I learned of infinite patience. His Voice was in me as it is in you, speaking for patience towards the Sonship in the name of its Creator. What you need to learn now is that only infinite patience *can* produce immediate effects. This is the way in which time is exchanged for eternity. Infinite patience calls upon infinite love, and by producing results *now*, it renders time unnecessary. To say that time is temporary is merely redundant. We have repeatedly said that time is a learning device which will be abolished when it is no longer useful. The Holy Spirit, Who speaks for God in time, also knows that time is meaningless. He reminds you of this in every passing moment of time, because it is His special function to return you to eternity and remain to bless *your* creations there. He is the only blessing you can truly give, because He is so truly blessed, and because He has been given you so freely by God, you must give Him as you received Him.

The idea of “set” is among the better psychological concepts. Actually, it is used quite frequently in the Bible and also in this course under many different terms. For example, “God will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed (or set) on Him,” a statement which means that God's peace is set in the Holy Spirit because it is fixed on God. It is also fixed in you. You, then, *are* fixed in the peace of God. The concept of “fixation” is also a very helpful one which Freud understood perfectly. Unfortunately, he lost his understanding because he was afraid and, as you know all too well, fear is incompatible with good judgment. Fear distorts thinking and therefore *dis*orders thought. Freud's system of thought was extremely ingenious because Freud was extremely ingenious, and a mind *must* endow its thoughts with its own attributes. This is its inherent strength, although it may misuse its power. Freud lost much of the potential value of his thought system, because he did *not* include himself in it. This is a dissociated state, because the thinker cuts himself off from his thoughts. Freud's thought was so conflicted that he could not have retained his sanity as *he* saw it *without* dissociation. That is why the many contradictions which are quite apparent in his thinking became increasingly less apparent to *him*. A man who knows what fixation really means and yet does not yield to it is terribly afraid. Fixation is the pull of God, on whom your mind *is* fixed because of the Holy Spirit's irrevocable set. “Irrevocable” means “cannot be called back or redirected.” The irrevocable nature of the Holy Spirit's set is the basis for His unequivocal Voice. The Holy Spirit *never* changes His Mind. Clarity of thought *cannot* occur under conditions of vacillation. Unless a mind is fixed in its purpose, it is *not* clear. Clarity literally means the state of light, and enlightenment *is* understanding. Enlightenment stands *under* perception, because you have denied it as the *real* foundation of thought. This is the basis for *all* delusional systems. The concept of fixation as Freud saw it has a number of learning advantages. First, it recognizes that man can be fixated at a point in development which does *not* accord with a point in time. This clearly could have been a means toward real release from the time belief, had Freud pursued it with an open mind. Freud, however, suffered all his life from refusal to allow eternity to dawn upon his mind and enlighten it truly. As a result, he overlooked *now* entirely and merely saw the continuity of past and future. Second, although Freud misinterpreted what the Holy Spirit told him, or better, reminded him of, he was too honest to deny more than was necessary to keep his fear in tolerable bounds as he perceived the situation. Therefore, he emphasized that the point in development at which the mind is fixated is more real to *itself* than the external reality with which it disagrees. This again could have been a powerful *release* mechanism had Freud not decided to involve it in a strong *defense* system because he perceived it as an attack. Third, although Freud interpreted fixation as involving irrevocable “danger points” to which the mind could always regress, the concept can also be interpreted as an irrevocable call to sanity which the mind cannot *lose*. Freud himself could not accept this interpretation, but throughout his thought system, the “threat” of fixation remained and could never be eliminated by any living human being. Essentially, this was the basis of Freud's pessimism, personally as well as theoretically. He tried every means his very inventive mind could devise to set up a form of therapy which could enable the mind to escape from fixation forever, even though he *knew* this was impossible. This knowledge plagued Freud's belief in his own thought system at every turn because he was both an honest man and a healer. He was therefore only partially insane and was unable to relinquish the *hope* of release even though he could not cope with it. The reason for this amount of detail is because *you* are in the same position. You were eternally fixated on God in your creation, and the pull of this fixation is so strong that you will never overcome it. The reason is perfectly clear. The fixation is on a level so high that it cannot *be* surmounted. You are *always* being pulled back to your Creator, because you *belong* to Him. Do you *really* believe you can make a voice that can drown out His? Do you *really* believe that you can devise a thought system which can separate you from His? Do you *really* believe that you can plan for your safety and joy better than He can? You need be neither careful nor careless; you need merely cast your cares upon Him, because He careth for *you*. You *are* His care because He loves you. His Voice reminds you always that all hope is yours *because* of His care. You *cannot* choose to escape His care because that is not His Will, but you *can* choose to accept His care and use the infinite power *of* His care for all those He created *by* it. There have been many healers who did not heal themselves. They have not moved mountains by their faith, because their faith was not whole. Some of them have healed the sick at times, but they have not raised the dead. Unless the healer heals *himself*, he does *not* believe that there is no order of difficulty in miracles. He has not learned that *every* mind God created is equally worthy of being healed *because God created it whole*. You are merely asked to return to God the mind as *He* created it. He asks you only for what He gave, knowing that this giving will heal you. Sanity *is* wholeness, and the sanity of your brothers *is* yours. Why should you listen to the endless insane calls which you think are made upon you when you *know* the Voice of God Himself is in you? God commended His Spirit to you and asks that you commend yours to Him. He wills to keep it in perfect peace, because you are of one mind and spirit with Him. Excluding yourself from the Atonement is the ego's last-ditch defense of its *own* existence. It reflects both the ego's need to separate and your willingness to side with its separateness. This willingness means *that you do not want to be healed*. But the time *is* now. You have not been asked to work out the plan of salvation yourselves because, as I told you before, the remedy is *not* of your making. God Himself gave you the perfect correction for everything you have made which is *not* in accord with His holy Will. I have made His plan perfectly explicit to you and have also told you of your part in His plan and how urgent it is that you fulfill it. There is time for delay, but there need not be. God weeps at the “sacrifice” of His Children, who believe they are lost to Him. I have already told you that whenever you are not wholly joyous it is because you have reacted with a lack of love to some Soul which God created. Perceiving this as “sin,” you become defensive because you *expect attack*. The decision to react in this way, however, is *yours* and can therefore be undone. It *cannot* be undone by repentance in the usual sense because this implies guilt. If you allow yourself to feel guilty, you will *reinforce* the error rather than allow it to be undone *for* you. Decisions *cannot* be difficult. This is obvious if you realize that you must *already* have made a decision *not* to be wholly joyous if that is how you feel. Therefore, the first step in the undoing is to recognize that you *actively decided wrongly* but can *as actively decide otherwise*. Be very firm with yourselves in this, and keep yourselves fully aware of the fact that the undoing process, which does *not* come from you, is nevertheless *within* you because God placed it there. *Your* part is merely to return your thinking to the point at which the error was made and give it over to the Atonement in peace. Say to yourselves the following as sincerely as you can, remembering that the Holy Spirit will respond fully to your slightest invitation: *I must have decided wrongly, because I am **not** at peace. I made the decision myself, but I can also decide otherwise. I **will** to decide otherwise, because I **want** to be at peace. I do **not** feel guilty, because the Holy Spirit will undo all the consequences of my wrong decision **if I will let Him.** I **will** to let Him, by allowing Him to decide for God for Me.*