Eight

You are hampered in your progress by your demands to know what you do *not* know. This is actually a way of holding on to deprivation. You cannot reasonably object to following instructions in a course *for* knowing on the grounds that you do *not* know. The need for the course is implicit in your objection. Knowledge is not the motivation for learning this course. *Peace* is. As the prerequisite for knowledge, peace *must* be learned. This is only because those who are in conflict are *not* peaceful, and peace is the *condition* of knowledge, because it is the condition of the Kingdom. Knowledge will be restored when you meet its conditions. This is not a bargain made by God, Who makes *no* bargains. It is merely the result of your misuse of His laws on behalf of a will that is not His. Knowledge *is* His Will. If you are *opposing* His Will, how can you have knowledge? I have told you what knowledge offers you, but it is clear that you do not regard this as wholly desirable. If you did, you would hardly be willing to throw it away so readily when the ego asks for your allegiance. The distraction of the ego seems to interfere with your learning, but the ego *has* no power to distract you unless you *give* it the power. The ego's voice is an hallucination. You cannot expect it to say, “I am not real.” Hallucinations *are* inaccurate perceptions of reality. Yet you are not asked to dispel them alone. You are merely asked to evaluate them in terms of their results to *you*. If you do not want them on the basis of loss of peace, they will be removed from your mind *for* you. Every response to the ego is a call to war, and war *does* deprive you of peace. Yet in this war there is no opponent. *This* is the reinterpretation of reality which you must make to secure peace, and the only one you need *ever* make.

Those whom you perceive as opponents are *part* of your peace, which *you* are giving up by attacking them. How can you *have* what you give up? You *share* to have, but you do not give it up yourself. When you give up peace, you are *excluding* yourself from it. This is a condition which is so alien to the Kingdom that you cannot understand the state which prevails within it. Your past learning must have taught you the wrong things simply because it has not made you happy. On this basis alone, its value should be questioned. If learning aims at change, and that is *always* its purpose, are you satisfied with the changes *your* learning has brought you? Dissatisfaction with learning outcomes must be a sign of learning failure since it means that you did not get what you *want*. The curriculum of the Atonement is the opposite of the curriculum you have established for yourselves, *but so is its outcome*. If the outcome of yours has made you unhappy and if you *want* a different one, a change in the curriculum is obviously necessary. The first change that must be introduced is a change in *direction*. A meaningful curriculum *cannot* be inconsistent. If it is planned by two teachers, each believing in diametrically opposed ideas, it cannot *be* integrated. If it is carried out by these two teachers simultaneously, each one merely *interferes* with the other. This leads to fluctuation, but *not* to change. The volatile *have no* direction. They cannot choose one because they cannot relinquish the other, even if the other does not exist. Their conflicted curriculum teaches them *all* directions exist and gives them no rationale for choice. The total senselessness of such a curriculum must be fully recognized before a real change in direction becomes possible. You *cannot* learn simultaneously from two teachers who are in *total* disagreement about everything. Their joint curriculum presents an impossible learning task. They are teaching you *entirely* different things in *entirely* different ways, which might be possible except for the crucial fact that both are *teaching you about yourself.* Your reality is unaffected by both, but if you *listen* to both, your mind will be split about what your reality *is.*

There *is* a rationale for choice. Only one Teacher *knows* what your reality is. If learning that is the *purpose* of the curriculum, you must learn it of Him. The ego does not *know* what it is trying to teach. It is trying to teach you what you are *without* knowing it. The ego is expert only in confusion. It does not understand anything else. As a teacher, then, it is totally confused and *totally confusing.* Even if you could disregard the Holy Spirit entirely, which is quite impossible, you could learn nothing from the ego because the ego *knows* nothing. Is there *any* possible reason for choosing a teacher such as this? Does the total disregard of anything it teaches make anything *but* sense? Is *this* the teacher to whom a Son of God should turn to find *himself*? The ego has never given you a sensible answer to *anything*. Simply on the grounds of your own experience with the ego's teaching, should not this alone disqualify it as your future teacher? Yet the ego has done more harm to your learning than this alone. Learning is joyful if it leads you along your natural path and facilitates the development of what you *have*. When you are taught *against* your nature, however, you will *lose* by your learning because your learning will imprison you. Your will is *in* your nature and therefore *cannot* go against it. The ego cannot teach you anything as long as your will is free, because you will not *listen* to it. It is *not* your will to be imprisoned, *because* your will is free. That is why the ego is the *denial* of free will. It is *never* God who coerces you because He *shares* His Will with you. His Voice teaches *only* His Will, but that is not the Holy Spirit's lesson because that is what you *are*. The *lesson* is that your will and God's cannot be out of accord, *because* they are one. This is the undoing of *everything* the ego tries to teach. It is not, then, only the direction of the curriculum which must be unconflicted, but also the *content*. The ego wants to teach you that you want to *oppose* God's Will. This *unnatural* lesson cannot *be* learned, but the *attempt* to learn it is a violation of your own freedom and makes you afraid of your will *because* it is free. The Holy Spirit opposes *any* imprisoning of the will of a Son of God, *knowing* that the will of the Son *is* the Father's. The Holy Spirit leads you steadily along the path of freedom, teaching you how to disregard or look beyond *everything* that would hold you back. We said before that the Holy Spirit teaches you the difference between pain and joy. That is the same as saying that He teaches you the difference between imprisonment and freedom. *You* cannot make this distinction *without* Him. That is because you have taught yourself that imprisonment *is* freedom. Believing them to be the same, how *can* you tell them apart? Can you ask the part of your mind that taught you to believe they *are* the same to teach you the *difference* between them? The Holy Spirit's teaching takes only *one* direction and has only *one* goal. His direction is freedom, and His goal is God. Yet He cannot conceive of God without *you*, because it is not God's Will to *be* without you. When you have learned that your will *is* God's, you could no more will to be without Him than He could will to be without *you*. This *is* freedom and this *is* joy. Deny yourself this and you *are* denying God His Kingdom because He created you *for* this. When we said, “All power and glory are yours because the Kingdom is His,” this is what we meant. The Will of God is without limit, and all power and glory lie within it. It is boundless in strength and in love and in peace. It has no boundaries because its extension is unlimited, and it encompasses all things because it created all things. By creating all things, it made them part of itself. *You* are the Will of God, because this is how you were created. Because your Creator creates *only* like Himself, you *are* like Him. You are part of Him Who *is* all power and glory and are therefore as unlimited as He is. To what else *except* all power and glory can the Holy Spirit appeal to restore God's Kingdom? His appeal, then, is merely to what the Kingdom *is* and for its own acknowledgment of what it is. When you acknowledge this, you bring the acknowledgment automatically to everyone, because you *have* acknowledged everyone. By *your* recognition you awaken *theirs*, and through theirs *yours* is extended. Awakening runs easily and gladly through the Kingdom in answer to the call of God. This is the natural response of every Son of God to the Voice of his Creator, because it is the Voice for *his* creations and for his own extension.

Glory be to God in the highest and to *you*, because He has so willed it. Ask and it shall be given you, because it has already *been* given. Ask for light and learn that you *are* light. If you want understanding and enlightenment, you *will* learn it, because your will to learn it is your decision to listen to the Teacher who *knows* of light and can therefore *teach* it to you. There is no limit on your learning, because there is no limit on your *minds.* There is no limit on His Will to teach, because He was created \[by unlimited Will in *order*\] *to* teach. *Knowing* His function perfectly, He wills to fulfill it perfectly, because that is His joy and *yours*. To fulfill the Will of God perfectly is the only joy and peace that can be fully known, because it is the only function that can be fully *experienced*. When this is accomplished, then, there *is* no other experience. Yet the *wish* for other experience will block its accomplishment, because God's Will cannot be forced upon you, being an experience of total *willingness.* The Holy Spirit knows how to teach this, but *you* do not. That is why you need Him and why God *gave* Him to you. Only *His* teaching will release your will to God's, uniting it with His power and glory and establishing them as *yours*. You share them as God shares them, because this is the natural outcome of their being. The will of Father and of the Son are one together *by their extension*. Their extension is the *result* of their oneness, holding their unity together by extending their *joint* will. This is perfect creation by the perfectly created in union with the Perfect Creator. The Father *must* give fatherhood to His Son, because His own Fatherhood must be extended outward. You who belong in God have the holy function of extending His Fatherhood by placing *no* limits upon it. Let the Holy Spirit teach you *how* to do this, for you will know what it *means* of God Himself. When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him, you will see yourself. As you treat him, you will treat yourself. As you think of him, you will think of yourself. Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose sight of yourself. Whenever two Sons of God meet, they are given another chance at salvation. Do not leave anyone without giving salvation *to* him and receiving it yourself, for I am always there with you in remembrance of *you*. The goal of the curriculum, regardless of the teacher you choose, is *know thyself*. There is nothing else to learn. Everyone is looking for himself and for the power and glory he thinks he has lost. Whenever you are with anyone, you have another opportunity to find them. Your power and glory are in him, *because* they are yours. The ego tries to find them in *yourself*, because it does not know where to look. The Holy Spirit teaches you that if you look *only* at yourself, you *cannot* find yourself because that is not what you *are.* Whenever you are with a brother, you are learning what you are because you are *teaching* what you are. He will respond either with pain or with joy, depending on which teacher *you* are following. *He* will be imprisoned or released according to your decision, *and so will you*. Never forget your responsibility to him, because it is your responsibility to *yourself*. Give him *his* place in the Kingdom, and you will have *yours*. The Kingdom *cannot* be found alone, and you who *are* the Kingdom cannot find *yourselves* alone. To achieve the goal of the curriculum, then, you *cannot* listen to the ego. *Its* purpose is to *defeat* its own goal. The ego does not know this, because it does not know anything. But *you* can know this, and you *will* know it if you are willing to look at what the ego has made of *you*. This *is* your responsibility, because once you have really done this, you *will* accept the Atonement for yourself. What other choice could you make? Having made this choice, you will begin to learn and understand why you have believed that when you met someone else, you had thought that he *was* someone else. And every holy encounter in which *you* enter fully will teach you *this is not so.* You can encounter *only* part of yourself, because you are part of God, Who *is* everything. His power and glory are everywhere, and you *cannot* be excluded from them. The ego teaches that your strength is in you *alone*. The Holy Spirit teaches that *all* strength is in God and *therefore* in you. God wills *no one* suffer. He does not will anyone to suffer for a wrong decision, *including* you. That is why He has given you the means for *undoing* it. Through His power and glory, all your wrong decisions are undone, *completely* releasing you *and* your brothers from *every* imprisoning thought *any* part of the Sonship has accepted. Wrong decisions have no power *because* they are not true. The imprisonment which they *seem* to produce is no more true than *they* are. Power and glory belong to God alone. So do *you*. God gives *whatever* belongs to Him, because He gives of Himself, and *everything* belongs to Him. Giving of *your* self is the function He gave you. Fulfilling it perfectly will teach you what you *have* of Him, and this will teach you what you *are* in Him. You *cannot* be powerless to do this, because this *is* your power. Glory is God's gift to you, because that is what *He* is. See this glory everywhere to learn what *you* are.

If God's Will for you is complete peace and joy, unless you experience *only* this you must be refusing to *acknowledge* His Will. His Will does not vacillate, being changeless forever. When you are not at peace, it can only be because you do not believe you *are* in Him. Yet He is all in all. His peace is complete, and you *must* be included in it. His laws govern you, because they govern *everything*. You cannot exempt yourself from His laws, although you can disobey them. Yet if you do, and *only* if you do, you *will* feel lonely and helpless, because you are denying yourself everything. I am come as a light into a world that *does* deny itself everything. It does this simply by dissociating itself *from* everything. It is therefore an illusion of isolation, maintained by fear of the same loneliness which *is* its illusion. I have told you that I am with you always, even to the end of the world. That is *why* I am the light of the world. If I am with you in the loneliness of the world, *the loneliness is gone.* You *cannot* maintain the illusion of loneliness if you are *not* alone. My purpose, then, *is* to overcome the world. I do not attack it, but my light must dispel it because of what it *is*. Light does not attack darkness, but it *does* shine it away. If my light goes with you everywhere, *you* shine it away *with* me. The light becomes *ours*, and you cannot abide in darkness any more than darkness can abide wherever you go. The remembrance of me *is* the remembrance of yourself and of Him Who sent me to you. You were in darkness until God's Will was done completely by *any* part of the Sonship. When this was done, it was perfectly accomplished by *all*. How else could it *be* perfectly accomplished? My mission was simply to unite the will of the Sonship with the Will of the Father by being aware of the Father's Will myself. This is the awareness I came to give *you*, and your problem in accepting it *is* the problem of this world. Dispelling it is salvation, and in this sense I *am* the salvation of the world. The world must despise and reject me, because the world *is* the belief that love is impossible. *Your* reactions to me are the reactions of the world to God. If you will accept the fact that I am with you, you are *denying* the world and *accepting* God. My will is His, and *your* will to hear me is the decision to hear His Voice and abide in His Will. As God sent me to you, so will I send you to others, and I will go to them *with* you so we can teach them \[union and peace\]. Do you not think the world *needs* peace as much as you do? Do you not want to *give* it to the world as much as you want to *receive* it? For unless you do, you will *not* receive it. If you will to have it of me, you *must* give it. Rehabilitation does not come from anyone else. You can have guidance from without, but you must *accept* it from within. The guidance must \[become\] what *you* want, or it will be meaningless to you. That is why rehabilitation is a collaborative venture. I can tell you what to do, but this will not help you unless you collaborate by believing that I *know* what to do. Only then will your mind choose to follow me. Without *your* will, you cannot *be* rehabilitated. *Motivation* to be healed is the crucial factor in rehabilitation. Without this you are deciding *against* healing, and your veto of my will for you *makes healing impossible*. If healing *is* our joint will, unless our wills *are* joined you *cannot* be healed. This is obvious when you consider what healing is *for*. Healing is the way in which the separation is overcome. Separation is overcome by *union*. It cannot be overcome by separating. The *will* to unite must be unequivocal, or the will *itself* is divided or not whole. Your will is the means by which you determine your own condition, because will is the *mechanism* of decision. It is the power by which you separate or join and experience pain or joy accordingly. My will cannot *overcome* yours, because yours is as powerful as mine. If it were not so, the Sons of God would be unequal. All things are possible through our *joint* will, but my will alone cannot help you. Your will is as free as mine, and God Himself would not go against it. *I* cannot will what God does *not* will. I can offer you my will to make *yours* invincible by this sharing, but I cannot *oppose* yours without competing with it and thereby violating God's Will for you. Nothing God created can oppose your will, as nothing God created can oppose His. God *gave* your will its power, which I can only acknowledge in honor of *His*. If you want to be like me, I will help you, knowing that we *are* alike. If you want to be different, I will wait until you change your mind. I can *teach* you, but only you can choose to *listen* to my teaching. How else can it be, if God's Kingdom *is* freedom? Freedom cannot be learned by tyranny of any kind, and the perfect equality of *all* God's Sons cannot be recognized through the dominion of one will over another. God's Sons are equal in will, all being the Will of their Father. This is the *only* lesson I came to teach, knowing that it is true. When your will is *not* mine, it is not our Father's. This means that you have imprisoned *yours* and have not *let* it be free. Of yourselves you can do nothing, because of yourselves you *are* nothing. I am nothing without the Father, and *you* are nothing without *me*, because by denying the Father you deny *yourself*. I will *always* remember you, and in *my* remembrance of you lies your remembrance of *yourself.* In our remembrance of *each other* lies our remembrance of God, and in this remembrance lies your freedom, because your freedom *is* in Him. Join then with me in praise of Him *and* you whom He created. This is our gift of gratitude to Him, which He will share with *all* His creations, to whom He gives equally whatever is acceptable to Him. *Because* it is acceptable to Him, it is the gift of freedom, which *is* His Will for all His Sons. By *offering* freedom, *you* will be free. Freedom is the only gift you can offer to God's Sons, being an acknowledgment of what *they* are and what *He* is. Freedom is creation because it is love. What you seek to imprison you do *not* love. Therefore, when you seek to imprison anyone, including *yourself*, you do not love him, and you cannot identify *with* him. When you imprison yourself, you are losing sight of your true identification \[because you cannot identify\] with me and with the Father. Your identification *is* with the Father and with the Son. It *cannot* be with one and not the other. If you are part of one, you must be part of the other because they *are* one. The Holy Trinity is holy *because* It is One. If you exclude *yourself* from this union, you are perceiving the Holy Trinity as separated. You must be included *in* It, because It *is* everything. Unless you take your place in It and fulfill your function as *part* of It, It is as bereft as *you* are. No part of It can be imprisoned if Its truth is to be known. Can you be separated from your identification and be at peace? Dissociation is not a solution; it is a *delusion*. The delusional believe that truth will assail them, and so they do not *see* it, because they *prefer* the delusion. Judging truth as something they do *not* want, they perceive deception and block knowledge. Help them by offering them *your* unified will on their behalf, as I am offering you mine on *yours*. Alone we can do nothing, but *together* our wills fuse into something whose power is far beyond the power of its separate parts. By *not being separate*, the Will of God is established *in* ours and *as* ours. This Will is invincible, *because* it is undivided. The undivided will of the Sonship is the perfect creator, being wholly in the likeness of God, Whose Will it *is.* *You* cannot be exempt from it if you are to understand what *it* is and what *you* are. By separating your will *from* mine, you are exempting yourself from the Will of God, which *is* yourself. Yet to heal is still to make whole. Therefore, to heal is to *unite* with those who are like you, because perceiving this likeness *is* to recognize the Father. If *your* perfection is in Him and *only* in Him, how can you *know* it without recognizing Him? The recognition of God *is* the recognition of yourself. There *is* no separation of God and His creation. You will learn this as you learn that there is no separation of *your* will and *mine*. Let the love of God shine upon you by your acceptance of me. *My* reality is yours *and* His. By joining your will with mine, you are signifying your awareness that the Will of God is one. God's Oneness and ours are not separate, because His Oneness *encompasses* ours. To join with me is to restore His power to you, *because* we are sharing it. I offer you only the *recognition* of His power in you, but in that lies *all* truth. As *we* unite, we unite with Him. Glory be to the union of God and His holy Sons! All glory lies in them *because* they are united. The miracles we do bear witness to the Will of the Father for His Son and to our joy in uniting *with* His Will for us. When you unite with me, you are uniting *without* the ego, because I have renounced the ego in myself and therefore *cannot* unite with yours. *Our* union is therefore the way to renounce the ego in *yourself.* The truth in both of us is *beyond* the ego. By willing that, you *have* gone beyond it toward truth. Our success in transcending the ego is guaranteed by God, and I can share \[my perfect confidence in His promise, because I know He gave me\] this confidence for both of us and *all* of us. I bring God's peace back to all His Children, because I received it of Him for us all. Nothing can prevail against our united wills, because nothing can prevail against God's. Would you know the Will of God for *you*? Ask it of me who knows it *for* you, and you will find it. I will deny you nothing, as God denies *me* nothing. Ours is simply the journey back to God, Who is our home. Whenever fear intrudes anywhere along the road to peace, it is *always* because the ego has attempted to join the journey with us *and* *cannot do so*. Sensing defeat and angered by it, the ego regards itself as rejected and becomes retaliative. You are invulnerable to its retaliation, *because I am with you*. On this journey, you have chosen me as your companion *instead* of the ego. Do not try to hold on to both, or you will try to go in different directions and will lose the way. The ego's way is not mine, but it is also *not yours*. The Holy Spirit has *one* direction for *all* minds, and the one He taught me is *yours*. Let us not lose sight of His direction through illusions, for only illusions of another direction can obscure the one for which God's Voice speaks in all of us. Never accord the ego the power to interfere with the journey because it *has* none, \[and\] the journey is the way to what is true. Leave *all* deception behind and reach beyond all attempts of the ego to hold you back. I go before you, because I *am* beyond the ego. Reach therefore for my hand, because you *want* to transcend the ego. My will will *never* be wanting, and if you *want* to share it you *will*. I give it willingly and gladly, because I need you as much as you need me.

*We* are the joint will of the Sonship, whose wholeness is for all. We begin the journey back by setting out *together* and gather in our brothers as we *continue* together. Every gain in our strength is offered for all, so they too can lay aside their weakness and add their strength to us. God's welcome waits for us all, and He will welcome us as I am welcoming you. Forget not the Kingdom of God for anything the world has to offer. The world can add nothing to the power and the glory of God and His holy Sons, but it *can* blind the Sons to the Father if they behold it. You cannot behold the world and know God. Only one is true. I am come to tell you that the choice of which is true is not yours. If it were, you would have destroyed yourselves. Yet God did not will the destruction of His creations, having created them for eternity. His Will has saved you, not from yourselves, but from your *illusions* of yourselves. He has saved you *for* yourselves. Let us glorify Him Whom the world denies, for over His Kingdom, it has no power. No one created by God can find joy in anything *except* the eternal. That is not because he is deprived of anything else, but because nothing else is *worthy* of him. What God and His Sons create *is* eternal, and in this and this only is their joy. Listen to the story of the prodigal son, and learn what God's treasure is and *yours*: This son of a loving father left his home and thought he squandered everything for nothing of any value, although he did not know its worthlessness at the time. He was ashamed to return to his father because he thought he had hurt him. Yet when he came home, the father welcomed him with joy, because only the son himself *was* his father's treasure. He *wanted* nothing else. God wants only His Son because His Son is His only treasure. You want *your* creations as He wants *His.* Your creations are your gift to the Holy Trinity, created in gratitude for *your* creation. They do not leave you, any more than you have left *your* Creator, but they *extend* your creation as God extended Himself to *you*. Can the creations of God Himself take joy in what is not real? And what *is* real except the creations of God and those which are created like His? *Your* creations love you as your Soul loves your Father for the gift of creation. There *is* no other gift which is eternal, and therefore there is no other gift which is *true.* How, then, can you *accept* anything else or *give* anything else and expect joy in return? And what else but joy would you *want*? You made neither yourself nor your function. You made only the *decision* to be unworthy of both. Yet you could not make *yourself* unworthy, because you are the treasure of God. What *He* values *is* valuable. There can *be* no question of its worth because its value lies in God's sharing Himself with it and *establishing* its value forever. *Your* function is to add to God's treasure by creating *yours*. His Will *to* you is His Will *for* you. He would not withhold creation from you, because *His* joy is in it. You cannot find joy *except* as God does. *His* joy lay in creating *you*, and He extends His Fatherhood to you so that you can extend yourself as He did. You do not understand this, because you do not understand *Him*. No one who does not know his function can understand it, and no one *can* know his function unless he knows who he *is.* Creation is the Will of God. His Will created you to create. Your will was not created separate from His, and so it wills as *He* wills. An “unwilling will” does not mean anything, \[because it is\] a contradiction in terms which actually leaves nothing. \[You can make yourself powerless only in a way that has no meaning at all.\] When you *think* you are unwilling to will with God, *you are not thinking*. God's Will *is* thought. It cannot be contradicted *by* thought. God does not contradict *Himself*, and His Sons, who are like Him, cannot contradict themselves *or* Him. Yet their thought is so powerful that they can even imprison the mind of God's Son *if they so choose*. This choice *does* make the Son's function unknown to *him*, but *never* to his Creator. And *because* it is not unknown to his Creator, it is forever knowable to him. There is no question but one you should ever ask of yourself: “Do I *want* to know my Father's Will for me?” *He* will not hide it. He has revealed it to me, because I asked it of Him and learned of what He had already given. Our function is to function together, because *apart* from each other we cannot function at all. The whole power of God's Son lies in all of us, but not in any of us alone. God would not have us be alone, because *He* does not will to be alone. That is why He created His Son and gave him the power to create with Him. Our creations are as holy as we are, and we are the Sons of God Himself and therefore as holy as He is. Through our creations, we extend our love and thus increase the joy of the Holy Trinity. You do not understand this for a very simple reason. You who are God's own treasure do not regard yourselves as valuable. Given this belief, you cannot understand *anything*. I share with God the knowledge of the value *He* puts upon you. My devotion to you is of Him, being born of my knowledge of myself *and* Him. We cannot *be* separated. Whom God has joined cannot be separated, and God has joined all His Sons with Himself. Can you be separated from your life and your being? The journey to God is merely the reawakening of the knowledge of *where* you are always and *what* you are forever. It is a journey without distance to a goal that has never changed. Truth can only be *experienced*. It cannot be described, and it cannot be explained. I can make you aware of the *conditions* of truth, but the experience is of God. Together we can meet its conditions, but truth will dawn upon you of itself. What God has willed for you *is* yours. He has given His Will to His treasure, whose treasure it is. Your heart lies where your treasure is, as His does. You who are beloved of God are wholly blessed. Learn this of me, and free the holy will of all those who are as blessed as *you* are.

Attack is *always* physical. When attack in any form enters your mind, you are *equating* yourself with a body. This is the ego's *interpretation* of the body. You do not have to attack physically to accept this interpretation. You are accepting it simply by the belief that attack can *get* you something you want. If you did not believe this, the idea of attack would have no appeal for you. When you equate yourself with a body, you will *always* experience depression. When a Child of God thinks of himself in this way, he is belittling himself and seeing his brothers as similarly belittled. Since he can find himself *only* in them, he has cut himself off from salvation. Remember that the Holy Spirit interprets the body only as a means of communication. Being the communication link between God and His separated Sons, the Holy Spirit interprets everything *you* have made in the light of what *He* is. The ego *separates* through the body. The Holy Spirit *reaches through* it to others. You do not perceive your brothers as the Holy Spirit does, because you do not interpret their bodies and yours solely as a means of joining their *minds* and uniting them with yours and mine. This interpretation of the body will change your mind entirely about its value. Of itself it has *none*. If you use the body for attack, it *is* harmful to you. If you use it only to reach the minds of those who believe they are bodies and teach them *through* the body that this is not so, you will begin to understand the power of the mind that is in both of you. If you use the body for this and *only* for this, you *cannot* use it for attack. In the service of uniting, it becomes a beautiful lesson in communion, which has value until communion *is*. This is God's way of making unlimited what you have limited. The Holy Spirit does not see the body as you do, because He knows the *only* reality anything can have is the service it can render God on behalf of the function He has given it. Communication *ends* separation. Attack *promotes* it. The body is beautiful or ugly, holy or savage, helpful or harmful, according to the use to which it is put. And in the body of another you will *see* the use to which you have put yours. If the body becomes for you a means which you give to the Holy Spirit to use on behalf of union of the Sonship, you will not see anything physical except as what it is. Use it for truth, and you will see it truly. *Misuse* it, and you *will* misunderstand it, because you have already done so *by* misusing it. Interpret *anything* apart from the Holy Spirit, and you will mistrust it. This will lead you to hatred and attack *and loss of peace*. Yet all loss comes only from your own misunderstanding. Loss of *any* kind is impossible. When you look upon a brother as a physical entity, *his* power and glory are lost *to you*, and so are *yours*. You *have* attacked him, but you *must* have attacked yourself first. Do not see him this way for your *own* salvation, which must bring him *his*. Do not allow him to belittle himself in *your* mind, but give him freedom from his belief in littleness and thus escape from *yours*. As part of you, *he* is holy. As part of me, *you* are. To communicate with part of God Himself is to reach beyond the Kingdom to its Creator through His Voice, which He has established as part of *you*. Rejoice, then, that of yourselves you can do nothing. You are not *of* yourselves. He of Whom you *are* has willed your power and glory *for* you, with which you can perfectly accomplish His holy will for you when you so will it yourself. He has not withdrawn His gifts from you, but *you* have withdrawn them from Him. Let no Son of God remain hidden for His Name's sake, because His Name is *yours*. Remember that the Bible says, “The Word (or thought) was made flesh.” Strictly speaking this is impossible, since it seems to involve the translation of one order of reality into another. Different orders of reality merely *appear* to exist, just as different orders of miracles do. Thought cannot be made into flesh except by belief, since thought is *not* physical. Yet thought *is* communication, for which the body *can* be used. This is the only *natural* use to which it *can* be put. To use the body unnaturally is to lose sight of the Holy Spirit's purpose and thus to confuse the goal of His curriculum. There is nothing so frustrating to a learner as to be placed in a curriculum which he cannot learn. His sense of adequacy suffers, and he *must* become depressed. Being faced with an impossible learning situation, regardless of why it is impossible, is the most depressing thing in the world. In fact, it is ultimately *why* the world is depressing. The Holy Spirit's curriculum is *never* depressing, because it is a curriculum of joy. Whenever the reaction to learning is depression, it is only because the goal of the curriculum has been lost sight of. In the world, not even the body is perceived as whole. Its purpose is seen as fragmented into many functions which bear little or no relationship to each other, so that it appears to be ruled by chaos. Guided by the ego, it *is*. Guided by the Holy Spirit, it is *not*. It becomes only a means by which the part of the mind you have separated from your Soul can reach beyond its distortions and *return* to the Soul. The ego's temple thus becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit, where devotion to Him replaces devotion to the ego. In this sense, the body *does* become a temple to God, because His Voice abides in it by directing the use to which it is put. Healing is the result of using the body *solely* for communication. Since this is natural, it heals by making whole, which is *also* natural. *All* mind is whole, and the belief that part of it is physical, or *not* mind, is a fragmented (or sick) interpretation. Mind *cannot* be made physical, but it *can* be made manifest *through* the physical if it uses the body to go *beyond* itself. By reaching *out*, the mind extends itself. It does not *stop* at the body, for if it does, it is blocked in its purpose. A mind which has been blocked has allowed itself to be vulnerable to attack because it has *turned* *against itself.* The removal of the blocks, then, is the *only* way to guarantee help and healing. Help and healing are the normal expressions of a mind which is working *through* the body but not *in* it. If the mind believes the body is its *goal*, it *will* distort its perception of the body and, by blocking its own extension beyond it, will induce illness by fostering *separation*. Perceiving the body as a *separate* entity cannot *but* foster illness because it is not true. A medium of communication will *lose* its usefulness if it is used for anything else. To use a medium of communication as a medium of *attack* is an obvious confusion in purpose. To communicate is to join and to attack is to separate. How can you do both simultaneously with the *same* *thing* and *not* suffer? Perception of the body can be unified only by *one* purpose. This releases the mind from the temptation to see the body in many lights and gives it over *entirely* to the One Light in Which it can be really understood at all. To confuse a learning device with a curriculum *goal* is a fundamental confusion. Learning can hardly be arrested at its own aids with hope of understanding either the aids *or* the learning's real purpose. Learning must lead *beyond* the body to the reestablishment of the power of the mind in it. This can be accomplished *only* if the mind extends to other minds and does not *arrest* itself in its extension. The arrest of the mind's extension is the cause of *all* illness, because *only* extension is the mind's function. The opposite of joy is depression. When your learning promotes depression *instead* of joy, you *cannot* be listening to God's joyous Teacher, and you *must* be learning amiss. To see a body as anything except a means of pure extension *is* to limit your mind and *hurt yourself.* Health *is* therefore nothing more than united purpose. If the body is brought under the purpose of the mind, the body becomes whole, because the *mind's* purpose *is* one. Attack can only be an *assumed* purpose of the body, because *apart* from the mind the body *has no purpose at all*. You are *not* limited by the body, and thought *cannot* be made flesh. Yet mind can be manifested through the body if it goes beyond it and *does not interpret it as limitation*. Whenever you see another as limited *to* or *by* the body, you are imposing this limit *on* *yourself*. Are you willing to *accept* this, when your whole purpose for learning should be to *escape* from limitations? To conceive of the body as a means of attack of any kind and to entertain even the possibility that joy could *possibly* result is a clear-cut indication of a poor learner. He has accepted a learning goal in obvious contradiction to the unified purpose of the curriculum and is interfering with his ability to accept its purpose as his *own*. Joy is unified purpose, and unified purpose is *only* God's. When yours is unified, it *is* His. Interfere with His purpose, and you *need* salvation. You have condemned yourself, but condemnation is *not* of God. Therefore, it is not true. No more are any of the *results* of your condemnation. When you see a brother as a body, you are condemning him *because* you have condemned yourself. Yet if all condemnation is unreal, and it *must* be unreal since it is a form of attack, then it can *have* no results. Do not allow yourselves to suffer from the results of what is not true. Free your minds from the belief that this is *possible*. In its complete impossibility and your full awareness *of* its complete impossibility lie your only hope for release. But what other hope would you want? Freedom from illusions lies only in not *believing* them. There *is* no attack, but there *is* unlimited communication and therefore unlimited power and wholeness. The power of wholeness is extension. Do not arrest your thought in this world, and you will open your mind to creation in God.

Attitudes toward the body are attitudes toward *attack*. The ego's definitions of *everything* are childish and always based on what it believes a thing is *for*. This is because it is incapable of true generalizations and equates what it sees with the function *it* ascribes to it. It does *not* equate it with what it *is*. To the ego, the body is to *attack* with. Equating *you* with the body, it teaches that *you* are to attack with, because this is what it believes. The body, then, is not the source of its own health. The body's condition lies solely in your interpretation of its function. The reason why definitions in terms of function are inferior is that they may well be inaccurate. Functions are part of being since they arise from it, but the relationship is not reciprocal. The whole *does* define the part, but the part does *not* define the whole. This is as true of knowledge as it is of perception. The reason to *know* in part is to know *entirely* is because of the fundamental *difference* between knowledge and perception. In perception the whole is built up of parts, which *can* separate and reassemble in different constellations. Knowledge never changes, so *its* constellation is permanent. The only areas in which part-whole relationships have *any* meaning are those in which change is possible. There *is* no difference between the whole and the part where change is impossible. The body exists in a world which *seems* to contain two voices which are fighting for its possession. In this perceived constellation, the body is regarded as capable of shifting its control from one to the other, making the concept of both health *and* sickness possible. The ego makes a fundamental confusion between means and ends, as it always does. Regarding the body as an end, the ego has no *real* use for it because it is *not* an end. You must have noticed an outstanding characteristic of every end that the ego has accepted as its own. When you have achieved it, *it has not satisfied you*. This is why the ego is forced to shift from one end to another without ceasing, so that *you* will continue to hope that it can yet offer you something. It has been particularly difficult to overcome the ego's belief in the body as an end, because this is synonymous with the belief in *attack* as an end. The ego has a real *investment* in sickness. If you are sick, how can you *object* to the ego's firm belief that you are *not* invulnerable? This is a particularly appealing argument from the ego's point of view because it obscures the obvious *attack* which underlies the sickness. If you accepted *this* and also decided *against* attack, you could not give this false witness to the ego's stand. It is hard to perceive sickness *as* a false witness, because you do not realize that it *is* entirely out of keeping with what you want. This witness, then, *appears* to be innocent and trustworthy, because you have not seriously cross-examined him. If you did, you would not consider sickness such a strong witness on behalf of the ego's views. A more honest statement would be as follows: Those who *want* the ego are predisposed to defend it. Therefore, their choice of witnesses should be suspect from the beginning. The ego does not call upon witnesses who would disagree with its case, *nor does the Holy Spirit*. We have said that judgment *is* the function of the Holy Spirit and one which He is perfectly equipped to fulfill. The ego as a judge gives anything *but* an impartial judgment. When the ego calls on a witness, it has *already* made the witness an ally. It is still true that the body has no function of itself, because it is *not* an end. The ego, however, establishes it *as* an end because as such it will lose its *true* function. This is the purpose of everything the ego does. Its sole aim is to lose sight of the function of *everything*. A sick body does not make any *sense*. It *could* not make sense, because sickness is not what the body is *for*. Sickness is meaningful only if the two basic premises on which the ego's interpretation of the body rests are true. Specifically, these are that the body is for attack and that you *are* a body. Without these premises, sickness is completely inconceivable. Sickness is a way of demonstrating that *you can be hurt*. It is a witness to your frailty, your vulnerability, and your extreme need to depend on *external* guidance. The ego uses this as its best argument for your need for *its* guidance. It dictates endless prescriptions for *avoiding* catastrophic outcomes. The Holy Spirit, perfectly aware of the same data, does not bother to analyze them at all. If the data are meaningless, there is no point in considering them. The function of truth is to collect data which are *true*. There is no point in trying to make sense out of meaningless data. *Any* way you handle them results in nothing. The more complicated the results become, the harder it may be to recognize their nothingness, but it is not necessary to examine *all* possible outcomes to which premises give rise to judge them truly. A learning device is *not* a teacher. *It* cannot tell you how *you* feel. You do not know how you feel, because you have *accepted* the ego's confusion, and *you* think that a learning device *can* tell you how you feel. Sickness is merely another example of your insistence on asking the guidance of a teacher *who does not know the answer*. The ego is *incapable* of knowing how you feel. When we said that the ego does not know *anything*, we said the one thing about the ego that *is* wholly true. But there *is* a corollary; if knowledge is being and the ego has no knowledge, then the ego has no *being*. You might well ask how the voice of something which does not exist can be so insistent. Have you seriously considered the distorting power of something you *want*, even if it is *not* true? You have had many instances of how what you want can distort what you see and hear. No one can doubt the ego's skill in building up false cases. Nor can anyone doubt your willingness to listen until *you* will not to tolerate anything *except* truth. When *you* lay the ego aside, it will be gone. The Holy Spirit's Voice is as loud as your willingness to listen. It cannot be louder without violating your will, which the Holy Spirit seeks to free but *never* to command. The Holy Spirit teaches you to use your body *only* to reach your brothers, so He can teach His message *through* you. This will heal them and *therefore* heal *you.* Everything used in accordance with its function as the Holy Spirit sees it *cannot* be sick. Everything used otherwise *is.* Do not allow the body to be a mirror of a split mind. Do not let it be an image of your own perception of littleness. Do not let it reflect your will to attack. Health is the natural state of anything whose interpretation is left to the Holy Spirit, Who perceives no attack on anything. Health is the result of relinquishing *all* attempts to use the body lovelessly. Health is the beginning of the proper perspective on life under the guidance of the one Teacher Who knows what life is, being the Voice for Life Itself.

We once said that the Holy Spirit is the *Answer.* He is the Answer to everything, because He knows what the answer to everything *is*. The ego does not know what a real question is, although it asks an endless number. Yet *you* can learn this as you learn to question the value of the ego and thus establish your ability to evaluate its questions. When the ego tempts you to sickness, do not ask the Holy Spirit to heal the body, for this would merely be to accept the ego's belief that the *body* is the proper aim for healing. Ask rather that the Holy Spirit teach you the right *perception* of the *body*, for perception alone can be distorted. *Only* perception can be sick because only perception can be *wrong*. Wrong perception is *distorted* willing, which wants things to be as they are not. The *reality* of everything is totally harmless, because total harmlessness is the *condition* of its reality. It is also the condition of your *awareness* of its reality. You do not have to seek reality. It will seek *you* and find you when you meet its conditions. Its conditions are part of what it *is*. And this part only is up to you. The rest is of itself. You need do so little, because it is so powerful that your little part will bring the whole *to* you. Accept then your little part, and *let* the whole be yours. Wholeness heals because it is of the mind. *All* forms of sickness, even unto death, are physical expressions of the *fear of awakening*. They are attempts to reinforce *unconsciousness* out of fear of *consciousness.* This is a pathetic way of trying *not* to know by rendering the faculties for knowing ineffectual. “Rest in peace” is a blessing for the living, not the dead, because rest comes from *waking*, not from sleeping. Sleep is withdrawing; waking is joining. Dreams are *illusions* of joining, taking on the ego's distortions about what joining means if you are sleeping under its guidance. Yet the Holy Spirit, too, has use for sleep and can use dreams on behalf of *waking* if you will let Him. How you wake is the sign of how you have used sleep. To whom did you give it? Under which teacher did you place it? Whenever you wake dispiritedly, it was *not* of the Holy Spirit. *Only* when you awaken joyously have you utilized sleep according to the Holy Spirit's purpose. You can indeed be “drugged by sleep,” but this is always because you have *misused* it on behalf of sickness. Sleep is no more a form of death than death is a form of unconsciousness. *Unconsciousness is impossible.* You can rest in peace only *because* you are awake. Healing is release from the fear of waking and the substitution of the *will to wake*. The will to wake is the will to love, since *all* healing involves replacing fear with love. The Holy Spirit cannot distinguish among degrees of error, for if He taught that one form of sickness is more serious than another, He would be teaching that one error can be *more real* than another. His function is to distinguish *only* between the false and the true, *replacing* the false with the true. The ego, which always *weakens* the will, wants to *separate* the body from the mind. This is an attempt to *destroy* it, yet the ego actually believes that it is *protecting* it. This is because the ego believes that *mind is dangerous* and that to *make mindless* is to heal. But to make mindless is impossible since it would mean to make nothing out of what God created. The ego *despises* weakness, even though it makes every effort to *induce* it. The ego *wants* only what it hates. To the ego this is perfectly sensible. Believing in the power of attack, the ego *wants* attack. You have surely begun to realize that this is a very practical course which means *exactly* what it says. So does the Bible, if it is properly understood. There has been a marked tendency on the part of many of the Bible's followers and also its translators to be entirely literal about fear and *its* effects but *not* about love and *its* results. Thus, “hellfire” means “burning,” but raising the dead becomes allegorical. Actually, it is *particularly* the references to the outcomes of love which *should* be taken literally because the Bible is *about* love, being about God. The Bible enjoins you to be perfect, to heal *all* errors, to take no thought of the body *as separate*, and to accomplish all things in my name. This is not my name alone, for ours is a shared identification. The name of God's Son is one, and you are enjoined to do the works of love, because we *share* this oneness. Our minds are whole *because* they are one. If you are sick you are withdrawing from me. Yet you cannot withdraw from me alone. You can only withdraw from yourself *and* me. I would not ask you to do the things you cannot do, and it is impossible that I could do things you cannot do. Given this, and given this *quite* *literally*, there can be nothing which prevents you from doing *exactly* what I ask, and everything which argues *for* your doing it. I give you no limits because God lays none upon you. When you limit *yourself*, we are *not* of one mind and that *is* sickness. Yet sickness is not of the body, but of the *mind. All* forms of dysfunction are merely signs that the mind has split and does not accept a unified purpose. The unification of *purpose*, then, is the Holy Spirit's *only* way of healing. This is because it is the only level at which healing means anything. The re-establishing of meaning in a chaotic thought system *is* the only way to heal it. We have said that your task is only to meet the conditions *for* meaning since meaning itself is of God. Yet your *return* to meaning is essential to *His* because your meaning is *part* of His. Your healing, then, is part of *His* health since it is part of His Wholeness. He cannot *lose* this, but *you* can not *know* it. Yet it is still His Will for you, and His Will *must* stand forever and in all things.

Fear of the Will of God is one of the strangest beliefs that the human mind has ever made. This could not possibly have occurred unless the mind were *already* profoundly split, making it possible for the mind to be *afraid* of what it really is. It is apparent that reality cannot “threaten” anything *except* illusions, since reality can only uphold truth. The very fact that the Will of God, which is what you *are*, is perceived as fearful to you demonstrates that you *are* afraid of what you are. It is not, then, the Will of God of which you *are* afraid, but *yours*. Your will is *not* the ego's, and that is *why* the ego is against you. What seems to be the fear of God is really only the fear *of your own reality.* It is impossible to learn anything consistently in a state of panic. If the purpose of this course is to learn what you are and if you have already *decided* that what you are is fearful, then it *must* follow that you will *not* learn this course. Yet you might remember that the reason *for* the course is that you do *not* know who you are. If you do not know your reality, how would you know whether it is fearful or not? The association of truth and fear, which would be highly artificial at most, is particularly inappropriate in the minds of those who do not know what truth *is*. All that this kind of association means is that you are arbitrarily endowing something quite beyond your awareness with something you *do not want*. It is evident, then, that you are judging something of which you are totally *unaware*. You have set this strange situation up so that it is completely impossible to escape from it *without* a Guide who *does* know what your reality is. The purpose of this Guide is merely to remind you of what you *want*. He is not attempting to force an alien will *upon* you. He is merely making every possible effort, within the limits you impose on Him, to *re-establish* your own will in your consciousness. You have *imprisoned* your will in your *unconscious*, where it remains available but cannot help you. When we said that the Holy Spirit's function is to sort out the true from the false in your unconscious, we meant that He has the power to look into what *you* have hidden and perceive the Will of God there. *His* perception of this will can make it real to *you* because He is in your mind and therefore He *is* your reality. If, then, His perception of your mind brings its reality to *you*, He *is* teaching you what you are. The only source of fear in this whole process can *only* be what you think you *lose*. Yet it is only what the Holy Spirit sees that you can possibly *have.* We have emphasized many times that the Holy Spirit will never call upon you to sacrifice *anything*. But if you ask the sacrifice of reality of *yourself*, the Holy Spirit *must* remind you that this is not God's Will *because* it is not yours. There is *no difference* between your will and God's. If you did not have split minds, you would recognize that willing is salvation *because* it is communication. It is impossible to communicate in alien tongues. You and your Creator can communicate through creation because that, and *only* that, *is* your joint will. Divided wills do not communicate because they speak for different things *to the same mind*. This loses the ability to communicate simply because confused communication does not mean *anything.* A message cannot be said to be communicated *unless* it makes sense. How sensible can your messages be when you ask for what you do *not* want? Yet as long as you are *afraid* of your will, this is precisely what you *will* ask for. You may insist that the Holy Spirit does not answer you, but it might be wiser to consider the kind of *asker* you are. You do *not* ask only for what you want. This is *solely* because you are afraid you might *receive* it, *and you would*. That is really why you persist in asking the teacher who could not possibly *teach* you your will. Of him you can *never* learn it, and this gives you the illusion of safety. Yet you cannot be safe *from* truth but only *in* it. Reality is the *only* safety. Your will is your salvation *because* it is the same as God's. The separation is nothing more than the belief that it is *different*. No mind can believe that its will is *stronger* than God's. If, then, a mind believes that *its* will is different from His, it can only decide either that there *is* no God or that *God's Will is fearful*. The former accounts for the atheist and the latter for the martyr. Martyrdom takes many forms, the category including *all* doctrines which hold that God demands sacrifices of *any* kind. Either basic type of insane decision will induce panic, because the atheist believes he is alone, and the martyr believes that God is crucifying him. Both really fear abandonment and retaliation, but the atheist is more reactive against abandonment and the martyr against retaliation. The atheist maintains that God has left him, but he does not care. He will, however, become very fearful and hence very angry if anyone suggests that God has *not* left him. The martyr, on the other hand, is more aware of guilt and, believing that punishment is inevitable, attempts to teach himself to *like* it. The truth is, very simply, that no one wants *either* abandonment *or* retaliation. Many people *seek* both, but it is still true that they do not *want* them. Can you ask the Holy Spirit for “gifts” such as these and actually expect to *receive* them? \[The Holy Spirit is totally incapable of giving you anything that does not come from God. His task is not to make anything for you.\] He cannot make you want something you do *not* want. When you ask the Universal Giver for what you do not want, you are asking for what *cannot* be given, *because it was never created*. It was never created, because it was never your will for *you*. Ultimately everyone must remember the Will of God, because ultimately everyone must recognize *himself*. This recognition *is* the recognition that *his will and God's are one*. In the presence of truth, there are *no* unbelievers and *no* sacrifices. In the security of reality, fear is totally meaningless. To deny what *is* can only *seem* to be fearful. Fear cannot be real without a cause, and God is the *only* Cause. God is Love, and you *do* want Him. This *is* your will. Ask for this and you *will* be answered because you will be asking only for what *belongs* to you. When you ask the Holy Spirit for what would hurt you, He cannot answer, because *nothing* can hurt you *and so you are asking for nothing*. *Any* desire which stems from the ego *is* a desire for nothing and to ask for it is *not a request*. It is merely a denial in the *form* of a request. The Holy Spirit is not concerned with form at all, being aware only of *meaning*. The ego cannot ask the Holy Spirit for *anything* because there is *complete communication failure* between them. Yet *you* can ask for *everything* of the Holy Spirit because *your* requests are real, being of your will. Would the Holy Spirit deny the Will of God? And could He fail to recognize it in His Sons? The energy which you withdraw from creation you expend on fear. This is not because your energy is limited but because *you have limited it.* You do not recognize the enormous waste of energy which you expend in denying truth. What would you say of someone who persisted in attempting the impossible, believing that to *achieve* it is *success*? The belief that you *must* have the impossible in order to be happy is totally at variance with the principle of creation. God *could* not will that happiness *depended* on what you could never *have.* The fact that God is love does not require belief, but it *does* require acceptance. It is indeed possible for you to *deny* facts, although it is impossible for you to *change* them. If you hold your hands over your eyes, you will *not* see because you are interfering with the laws of seeing. If you deny love, you will *not* know it because your cooperation is *the law of its being*. You cannot change laws you did not make, and the laws of happiness were created *for* you, not *by* you. Attempts of any kind to deny what *is* are fearful, and if they are strong, they *will* induce panic. Willing *against* reality, though impossible, can be *made* into a very persistent goal, *even though you do not want it.* But consider the result of this strange decision. You are *devoting* your mind to what you do not want. How real can this devotion *be*? If you do not want it, it was never created. If it was never created, it is nothing. Can you *really* devote yourself to nothing? God in His devotion to you created you devoted to *everything* and *gave* you what you are devoted to. Otherwise, you would not have been created perfect. Reality *is* everything, and therefore you have everything *because* you are real. You cannot make the unreal, because the *absence* of reality is fearful, and fear cannot *be* created. As long as you believe that fear is possible, *you will not create*. Opposing orders of reality *make reality meaningless*, and reality *is* meaning. Remember, then, that God's Will is *already* possible and nothing else will *ever* be. This is the simple acceptance of reality, because only this *is* real. You cannot *distort* reality and *know what it is*. And if you *do* distort reality, you will experience anxiety, depression, and ultimately panic, because you are trying to *make* yourself unreal. When you feel these things, do not try to look *beyond* yourself for truth, for truth can only be *within* you. Say, therefore, *Christ is in me, and where He is God **must** be, for Christ is **part** of Him.*

Everyone who has ever tried to use prayer to request something has experienced what appears to be failure. This is not only true in connection with specific things which might be harmful but also in connection with requests which are strictly in line with this course. The latter, in particular, might be incorrectly interpreted as “proof” that the course does not mean what it says. You must remember, however, that the course does state, and repeatedly, that its purpose is the *escape* from fear. Let us suppose, then, that what you request of the Holy Spirit *is* what you really want, but you are still *afraid* of it. Should this be the case, your *attainment* of it would no longer *be* what you want, even if *it* is. This accounts for why certain *specific* forms of healing are not achieved, even though the state of healing *is.* It frequently happens that an individual asks for physical healing because he is fearful of *bodily* harm. At the same time, however, if he *were* healed physically, the threat to his thought system would be considerably *more* fearful to him than its physical expression. In this case he is not really asking for *release* from fear but for the removal of a symptom which *he* has selected. This request is, therefore, *not* for healing at all. The Bible emphasizes that *all* prayers are answered, and this must be true if no effort is wasted. The very fact that one has asked the Holy Spirit for *anything* will ensure a response. Yet it is equally certain that *no* response given by the Holy Spirit will *ever* be one which would increase fear. It is possible that His answer will not be heard at all. It is *impossible*, however, that it will be lost. There are many answers which you have already received but have not yet *heard*. I assure you that they are waiting for you. It is indeed true that no effort is wasted. If you would know your prayers are answered, never doubt a Son of God. Do not question him and do not confound him, for your faith in him is your faith in *yourself*. If you would know God and His Answer, believe in me whose faith in you cannot be shaken. Can you ask of the Holy Spirit truly and doubt your brother? Believe his words are true because of the truth which is *in* him. You will unite with the truth in him, and his words will *be* true. As you hear *him*, you will hear *me.* *Listening* to truth is the only way you can hear it now and finally *know* it. The message your brother gives you is *up to you*. What does he say to you? What would you *have* him say? Your decision *about* him determines the message you receive. Remember that the Holy Spirit is in him, and His Voice speaks to you *through* him. What can so holy a brother tell you *except* truth? But are you *listening* to it? Your brother may not know who he is, but there is a light in his mind which *does* know. This light can shine into yours, making *his* words true and making *you* able to hear them. His words *are* the Holy Spirit's answer to you. Is your faith in him strong enough to let you hear? Salvation is of your brother. The Holy Spirit extends from your mind to his and answers *you*. You cannot hear the Voice for God in yourself alone because you are *not* alone. And His answer is only for what you *are*. You will not know the trust I have in you unless you *extend* it. You will not trust the guidance of the Holy Spirit or believe that it is for you unless you hear it in others. It *must* be for your brother *because* it is for you. Would God have created a Voice for you alone? Could you hear His answer *except* as He answers *all* of God's Sons? Hear of your brother what you would have me hear of you, for you would not want *me* to be deceived. I love you for the truth in you, as God does. Your deceptions may deceive *you*, but they *cannot* deceive *me*. Knowing what you are, I *cannot* doubt you. I hear only the Holy Spirit in you, Who speaks to me through *you*. If you would hear *me*, hear my brothers in whom God's Voice speaks. The answer to *all* prayers lies in them. You will be answered as you hear the answer in *everyone*. Do not listen to anything else, or you will not hear truth. Believe in your brothers *because* I believe in you, and you will learn that my belief in you is justified. Believe in me *by* believing in them for the sake of what God gave them. They *will* answer you if you learn to ask truth of them. Do not ask for blessings without blessing them, for only in this way can you learn how blessed *you* are. By following this way, you *are* looking for the truth in you. This is not going *beyond* yourself but *toward* yourself. Hear only God's Answer in His Sons, and you *are* answered. To disbelieve is to side against or to *attack*. To believe is to accept and to *side with*. To believe is not to be credulous but to accept and *appreciate*. What you do not believe, you do not appreciate, and you *cannot* be grateful for what you do not value. There is a price you will pay for judgment because judgment *is* the setting of a price. And as you set it, you *will* pay it. If paying is equated with *getting*, you will set the price low but demand a high *return*. You will have forgotten, however, that \[to price is to value, so\] your return is in *proportion* to your judgment of worth. If paying is associated with *giving*, it cannot be perceived as loss, and the *reciprocal* relationship of giving and receiving will be recognized. The price will then be set high because of the value of the return. The price for *getting* is to lose sight of value, making it inevitable that you will *not* value what you receive. Valuing it little, you will not appreciate it and will not *want* it. Never forget, then, that *you* have set the value on what you receive and have priced it by what you give. To believe that it is possible to get much for little is to believe that you can bargain with God. God's laws are *always* fair and perfectly consistent. *By* giving you receive. But to receive is to *accept*, not to get. It is impossible not to *have*, but it *is* possible not to *know* you have. The recognition of having is the willingness for *giving*, and *only* by this willingness can you recognize what you have. What you give is therefore the value you put on what you have, being the exact measure of the value you put upon it. And this, in turn, is the measure of how much you *want* it. You can *ask* of the Holy Spirit, then, only by giving *to* Him, and you can *give* to Him only where you *see* Him. If you see Him in everyone, consider how much you will be *asking* of Him and *how much you will receive*. He will deny you nothing because you have denied *Him* nothing, and so you can share everything. This is the way, and the *only* way, to have His answer because His answer is all you *can* ask for and *want*. Say, then, to everyone, *Because I will to know myself, I see you as God's Son and my brother.*