Nine

The alertness of the ego to the errors which other egos make is not the kind of vigilance the Holy Spirit would have you maintain. Egos are critical in terms of the kind of “sense” they stand for. *They* understand this kind of sense because it *is* sensible to them. To the Holy Spirit, it makes no sense at all. To the ego, it is kind and right and good to point out errors and “correct” them. This makes perfect sense to the ego, which is totally unaware of what errors *are* and what correction *is*. Errors *are* of the ego, and correction of errors of any kind lies solely in the *relinquishment* of the ego. When you correct a brother, you are telling him that he is wrong. He may be making no sense at the time, and it is certain that if he is speaking from the ego, he *will* be making no sense. But your task is still to tell him he is *right*. You do not tell him this verbally if he is speaking foolishly because he needs correction at *another* level, since his error *is* at another level. *He* is still right, because he is a Son of God. His ego is always wrong, no matter *what* it says or does. If you point out the errors of your brother's ego, you must be seeing through *yours*, because the Holy Spirit does not perceive his errors. This must be true if there is no communication at all between the ego and the Holy Spirit. The ego makes no sense, and the Holy Spirit does not attempt to understand anything that arises from it. Since He does not understand it, He does not *judge* it, knowing that nothing it engenders means anything.

When you react *at all* to errors, you are not listening to the Holy Spirit. He has merely disregarded them, and if you attend to them, you are not hearing *Him*. If you do not hear Him, you *are* listening to your ego and making as little sense as the brother whose errors you perceive. This cannot be correction. Yet it is more than merely lack of correction for him. It is the giving up of correction in *yourself*. When a brother behaves insanely, you can heal him only by perceiving the *sanity* in him. If you perceive his errors and *accept* them, you are accepting *yours*. If you want to give yours over to the Holy Spirit, you must do this with his. Unless this becomes the one way in which you handle *all* errors, you cannot understand how all errors are *undone.* How is this different from telling you that what you teach you learn? Your brother is as right as you are, and if you think he is wrong, you are condemning yourself. *You* cannot correct *yourself.* Is it possible, then, for you to correct another? Yet you *can* see him truly because it is possible for you to see *yourself* truly. It is not up to you to change him but merely to accept him as he *is.* His errors do not come from the truth that is in him, and only this truth is yours. His errors cannot change this and can have no effect at all on the truth in *you*. To perceive errors in anyone and to react to them as if they were real is to *make* them real to you. You will not escape paying the price for this, not because you are being punished for it, but because you are following the wrong guide and will lose your way. Your brother's errors are not of him any more than yours are of *you*. Accept his errors as real, and you have attacked *yourself.* If you would find your way and keep it, see only truth beside you, for you walk together. The Holy Spirit in you forgives all things in you *and* in your brother. *His* errors are forgiven *with* yours. Atonement is no more separate than love. Atonement cannot be separate, because it *comes* from love. *Any* attempt you make to correct a brother means that you believe correction by *you* is possible, and this can *only* be the arrogance of the ego. Correction is of God, Who does not know of arrogance. The Holy Spirit forgives everything, *because* God created everything. Do not undertake *His* function, or you will forget *yours*. Accept *only* the function of healing in time, because that is what time is *for*. God *gave* you the function to create in eternity. You do not need to learn this, but you *do* need to learn to *want* this, and for this all learning was made. This is the Holy Spirit's good use of an ability which you do not *need*, but which you *have* made. Give it to Him! You do not know how to use it. He will teach you how to see yourself without condemnation by learning how to look on *everything* without it. Condemnation will then not be real to you, and all your errors *will* be forgiven.

Atonement is for all, because it is the way to *undo* the belief that anything is for you alone. To forgive is to *overlook*. Look, then, *beyond* error, and do not let your perception rest *upon* it, for you will believe what your perception holds. Accept as true only what your brother *is* if you would know yourself. Perceive what he is *not*, and you cannot know what you are, *because* you see him falsely. Remember always that your identity is shared and that its sharing *is* its reality. You have a part to play in the Atonement, but the plan of the Atonement *is* beyond you. You do not know how to overlook errors, or you would not make them. It would merely be further error to think either that you do *not* make them or that you can correct them *without* a Guide to correction. And if you do not *follow* this Guide, your errors will *not* be corrected. The plan is not yours, *because* of your limited ideas of what you are. This limitation is where *all* errors arise. The way to undo them, therefore, is not *of* you but *for* you. The Atonement is a lesson in sharing, which is given you because *you have forgotten how to do it*. The Holy Spirit merely reminds you of what is your natural ability. By reinterpreting the ability to attack, which you *did* make, into the ability to *share*, He translates what you have made into what God created. If you would accomplish this *through* Him, you cannot look on your abilities through the eyes of the ego, or you will judge them as *it* does. All their harmfulness lies in its judgment. All their helpfulness lies in the judgment of the Holy Spirit. The ego, too, has a plan of forgiveness because you are *asking* for one, though not of the right teacher. The ego's plan, of course, *makes no sense* and *will not work.* By following it, you will merely place yourself in an impossible situation to which the ego *always* leads you. The ego's plan is to have you see error clearly *first* and *then* overlook it. Yet how can you overlook what you have made real? By seeing it clearly, you *have* made it real and *cannot* overlook it. This is where the ego is forced to appeal to “mysteries” and begins to insist that you must accept the meaningless to save yourself. Many have tried to do this in my name, forgetting that my words make *perfect* sense because they come from God. They are as sensible now as they ever were, because they speak of ideas which are eternal. Forgiveness that is learned of me does *not* use fear to *undo* fear. Nor does it make real the *unreal* and then destroy it. Forgiveness through the Holy Spirit lies simply in looking beyond error from the beginning and thus *keeping* it unreal for you. Do not let any belief in its realness enter your minds *at all*, or you will also believe that *you* must undo what you have made in order to be forgiven. What has no effect does not exist, and to the Holy Spirit, the effects of error are *totally* non-existent. By steadily and consistently canceling out *all* its effects *everywhere* and in *all* respects, He teaches that the ego does not exist and *proves* it. Follow His teaching in forgiveness then, because forgiveness *is* His function, and He knows how to fulfill it perfectly. That is what we meant when we once said that miracles are *natural*, and when they do *not* occur, something has gone wrong. Miracles are merely the sign of your willingness to follow the Holy Spirit's plan of salvation in recognition of the fact that you do *not* know what it is. His work is *not* your function, and unless you accept this, you cannot learn what *your* function is. The confusion of functions is so typical of the ego that you should be quite familiar with it by now. The ego believes that *all* functions belong to it, even though it has no idea what they *are*. This is more than mere confusion. It is a particularly dangerous combination of grandiosity *and* confusion which makes it likely that the ego will attack anyone and anything for no reason at all. This is exactly what the ego *does*. It is *totally* unpredictable in its responses, because it has no idea of *what* it perceives. If one has no idea of what is happening, how appropriately can you *expect* him to react? You might still ask yourself, regardless of how you can *account* for the reactions, whether they place the ego in a very sound position as the guide for *yours*. It seems absurd to have to emphasize repeatedly that the ego's qualifications as a guide are singularly unfortunate and that it is a remarkably poor choice as a teacher of salvation. Yet this question, ridiculous as it seems, is really the crucial issue in the whole separation fantasy. Anyone who elects a totally insane guide *must* be totally insane himself. It is not true that you do not know the guide is insane. *You* know it because *I* know it, and you *have* judged it by the same standard as I have. The ego literally lives on borrowed time, and its days are numbered. Do not fear the Last Judgment, but welcome it and do not wait, for the ego's time is borrowed from *your* eternity. This *is* the Second Coming, which was made *for* you as the First was created. The Second Coming is merely the return of *sense*. Can this *possibly* be fearful? What can be fearful but fantasy, and no one turns to fantasy unless he despairs of finding satisfaction in reality. Yet it is certain that he will *never* find satisfaction in fantasy, so that his only hope is to *change his mind about reality*. Only if the decision that reality is fearful is *wrong* can God be right. And I assure you that God *is* right. Be glad, then, that you *have* been wrong, but this was only because you did not know who you were. Had you remembered, you could no more have been wrong than God can. The impossible can happen *only* in fantasy. When you search for reality in fantasies, you will not find it. The symbols of fantasy are of the ego, and of *these* you will find many. But do not look for meaning in them. They have no more meaning than the fantasies into which they are woven. Fairy tales can be pleasant or fearful, pretty or ugly, but no one calls them *true*. Children may believe them, and so for a while the tales *are* true for them. Yet when reality dawns, the fantasies are gone. *Reality* has not gone in the meanwhile. The Second Coming is the *awareness* of reality, not its *return*. Behold, my children, reality is here. It belongs to you and me and God and is perfectly satisfying to all of us. *Only* this awareness heals, because it is the awareness of truth.

The ego's plan for forgiveness is far more widely used than God's. This is because it is undertaken by unhealed healers and is therefore of the ego. Let us consider the unhealed healer more carefully now. By definition, he is trying to *give* what he has not *received.* If he is a theologian, he may begin with the premise, “I am a miserable sinner and so are you.” If he is a psychotherapist, he is more likely to start with the equally incredible idea that *he* really believes in attack and so does the patient, but it does not matter in either case. We have repeatedly stated that beliefs of the ego cannot be shared, and this is *why* they are unreal. How, then, can “uncovering” them *make* them real? Every healer who searches fantasies for truth *must* be unhealed, because he does not *know* where to look for truth and therefore does not have the answer to the problem of healing. There is an advantage to bringing nightmares into awareness, but *only* to teach that they are not real and that *anything* they contain is meaningless. The unhealed healer cannot do this, because he does not *believe* it. All unhealed healers follow the ego's plan for forgiveness in one form or another. If they are theologians, they are likely to condemn themselves, teach condemnation, and advocate a very fearful solution. Projecting condemnation onto God, they make Him appear retaliative and fear His retribution. What they have done is merely to *identify* with the ego and, by perceiving clearly what *it* does, condemn themselves because of this profound confusion. It is understandable that there has been a revolt against this concept, but to revolt *against* it is still to *believe* in it. The *form* of the revolt, then, is different but *not* the content. The newer forms of the ego's plan are as unhelpful as the older ones, because form does not matter to the Holy Spirit and therefore does not matter at all. According to the newer forms of the ego's plan, the therapist interprets the ego's symbols in the nightmare and then uses them to prove that the *nightmare* is real. Having *made* it real, he then attempts to dispel its effects by depreciating the importance *of the dreamer*. This *would* be a healing approach if the dreamer were properly identified as unreal. Yet if the dreamer is equated with the *mind*, the mind's corrective power through the Holy Spirit is *denied*. It is noteworthy that this is a contradiction even in the ego's terms, and one which it usually *does* note, even in its confusion. If the way to counteract fear is to *reduce* the importance of the fearer, how can this build ego *strength*? These perfectly self-evident inconsistencies account for why, except in certain stylized verbal accounts, no one can *explain* what happens in psychotherapy. Nothing real *does*. Nothing real has happened to the unhealed healer, and he learns from his own teaching. *Because* his ego is involved, it always attempts to gain some support from the situation. Seeking to get something for *himself*, the unhealed healer does not know how to *give* and consequently cannot share. He cannot correct because he is not working *correctively*. He believes that it is up to him to teach the patient what is *real*, but he does not know it himself. What, then, *should* happen? When God said, “Let there be light,” there *was* light. Can you find light by analyzing darkness as the psychotherapist does or like the theologian, by acknowledging darkness in yourself and looking for a distant light to remove it while *emphasizing* the distance? Healing is *not* mysterious. Nothing will occur unless you understand it, since light *is* understanding. A “miserable sinner” cannot be healed without magic, nor can an “unimportant mind” esteem itself without magic. Both forms of the ego's approach, then, must arrive at an impasse, the characteristic “impossible situation” to which the ego *always* leads. It *can* be helpful to point out to a patient where he is heading, but the point is lost unless he can change his direction. The therapist cannot do this for him, but he also cannot do this for *himself*. The *only* meaningful contribution the therapist can make is to present an example of one whose direction has been changed *for* him and who no longer believes in nightmares of *any* kind. The light in *his* mind will therefore *answer* the questioner, who must decide with God that there *is* light because he *sees* it. And by *his* acknowledgment, the *therapist* knows it is there. That is how perception ultimately is translated into knowledge. The miracle worker begins by *perceiving* light and translates *his* perception into sureness by continually extending it and accepting its acknowledgment. Its *effects* assure him it is there. The therapist does not heal; *he lets healing be*. He can point to darkness, but he cannot bring light of *himself*, for light is not of him. Yet, being *for* him, it must also be for his patient. The Holy Spirit is the *only* therapist. He makes healing perfectly clear in *any* situation in which He is the Guide. The human therapist can only let Him *fulfill* His function. He needs no help for this. He will tell you *exactly* what to do to help *anyone* He sends to you for help and will speak to him through you if you do not *interfere.* Remember that you *are* choosing a guide for helping, and the *wrong* choice will *not* help. But remember also that the *right* one *will.* Trust Him, for help is His function, and He is of God. As you awaken other minds to the Holy Spirit through Him and *not* yourself, you will understand that you are not obeying the laws of this world, but that the laws you are obeying *work*. “The good is what works” is a sound, though insufficient, statement. *Only* the good *can* work. Nothing else works at all. This course is a guide to behavior. Being a very direct and very simple learning situation, it provides the Guide who *tells* you what to do. If you do it, you will *see* that it works. Its *results* are more convincing than its words. They will convince you that the words are true. By following the right Guide you will learn the simplest of all lessons— *By their fruits ye shall know them, and **they** shall know **themselves**.*

How can you become increasingly aware of the Holy Spirit in you *except* by His effects? You cannot see Him with your eyes nor hear Him with your ears. How, then, can you perceive Him at all? If you inspire joy, and others react to you *with* joy even though you are not experiencing joy yourself, there *must* be something in you that is capable of producing it. If it *is* in you and *can* produce joy, and if you see that it *does* produce joy in others, you *must* be dissociating it in yourself. It seems to you that the Holy Spirit does *not* produce joy consistently in you *only* because you do not consistently *arouse* joy in others. Their reactions to you *are* your evaluations of His consistency. When you are inconsistent, you will not always *give* *rise* to joy and so you will not always *recognize* His consistency. What you offer to your brother, you offer to Him because He cannot go *beyond* your offering in His giving. This is not because *He* limits His giving, but simply because you have limited your *receiving*. The will to receive is the will to accept. If your brothers *are* part of you, will you *accept* them? Only they can teach you what you are, and your learning is the result of what you taught them. What you call upon in them, you call upon in *yourself*. And as you call upon it in them, it becomes real to *you*. God has but one Son, knowing them all *as* one. Only God Himself is more than they, but they are not less than He is. Would you know what this means? If what you do to my brother you do to me, and if you do everything for yourself because we are *part* of you, everything *we* do belongs to you as well. Every Soul God created *is* part of you and shares His glory *with* you. His Glory belongs to Him, but it is equally *yours.* You cannot, then, be *less* glorious than He is. God is more than you only because He *created* you, but not even this would He keep from you. Therefore you *can* create as He did, and your dissociation will *not* alter this. Neither God's light *nor yours* is dimmed because you do not see. Because the Sonship *must* create as one, you remember creation whenever you recognize *part* of creation. Each part you remember adds to *your* wholeness, because each part *is* whole. Wholeness is indivisible, but you cannot learn of your wholeness until you see it *everywhere*. You can *know* yourself only as God knows His Son, for knowledge is shared *with* God. When you awake in Him you will know your magnitude by accepting His limitlessness as *yours*, but meanwhile you will judge it as you judge your brothers’ and will accept it as you accept *theirs*. You are not yet awake, but you can learn *how* to awaken. Very simply the Holy Spirit teaches you to awaken others. As you see them waken, you will learn what waking *means*, and because you have willed to wake them, their gratitude and their appreciation of what you have given them will teach *you* its value. *They* will become the witnesses to your reality, as *you* were created witnesses to God's. Yet when the Sonship comes together and *accepts* its oneness, it will be known by its creations, who witness to its reality as the Son does to the Father. Miracles have no place in eternity because they are reparative. Yet while you still need healing, your miracles are the only witnesses to your reality which you can *recognize.* You cannot perform a miracle for *yourself*, because miracles are a way of *giving* acceptance *and* receiving it. In time, the giving comes first, though they are simultaneous in eternity, where they cannot *be* separated. When you have learned that they *are* the same, the need for time is over. Eternity is *one* time, its only dimension being “always.” This cannot mean anything to you, however, until you remember God's open arms and finally know His open mind. Like Him, *you* are “always,” in His Mind and with a mind like His. In *your* open mind are *your* creations, in perfect communication born of perfect understanding. Could you but accept one of them, you would not want *anything* the world has to offer. Everything else would be totally meaningless. God's meaning is incomplete without you, and you are incomplete without your creations. Accept your brother in this world and accept *nothing else*, for in him you will find your creations, because he created them *with* you. You will never know that you are co-creator with God until you learn that your brother is a co-creator with *you*.

God's Will is your salvation. Would He not have given you the means to find it? If He wills you to *have* it, He must have made it possible and very easy to obtain it. Your brothers are everywhere. You do not have to seek far for salvation. Every minute and every second gives you a chance to save *yourself*. Do not lose these chances, not because they will not return, but because delay of joy is needless. God wills you perfect happiness *now*. Is it possible that this is not also *your* will? And is it possible that this is not *also* the will of your brothers? Consider, then, that in this joint will you *are* all united, and in this *only*. There will be disagreement on anything else, but *not* on this. This, then, is where peace *abides*. And *you* abide in peace when you so decide. Yet you cannot abide in peace unless you accept the Atonement, because the Atonement *is* the way to peace. The reason is very simple and so obvious that it is often overlooked. That is because the ego is *afraid* of the obvious since obviousness is the essential characteristic of reality. Yet *you* cannot overlook it unless you are *not looking.* It is *perfectly* obvious that if the Holy Spirit looks with love on *all* He perceives, He looks with love on *you*. His evaluation of you is based on His knowledge of what you are, and so He evaluates you truly. And this evaluation *must* be in your mind because *He* is. The ego is also in your mind, because you have *accepted* it there. *Its* evaluation of you, however, is the exact opposite of the Holy Spirit's, because the ego does *not* love you. It is unaware of what you are and wholly mistrustful of *everything* it perceives, because its own perceptions are so shifting. The ego is therefore capable of suspiciousness at best and viciousness at worst. That is its range. It cannot exceed it because of its uncertainty. And it can never go *beyond* it, because it can never *be* certain. You, then, have two *conflicting* evaluations of yourself in your minds, and they *cannot* both be true. You do not yet realize how *completely* different these evaluations are, because you do not understand how lofty the Holy Spirit's perception of you really is. He is not deceived by anything you do, because He never forgets what you *are*. The ego is deceived by everything you do, even when you respond to the Holy Spirit, because at such times its confusion *increases*. The ego is, therefore, particularly likely to attack you when you react lovingly, because it has evaluated you as *unloving*, and you are going *against* its judgment. The ego will begin to *attack* your motives as soon as they become clearly out of accord with its perception of you. This is when it will shift abruptly from suspiciousness to viciousness, since its uncertainty is increased. Yet it is surely pointless to attack in return. What can this mean except that you are *agreeing* with the ego's evaluation of what you are? If you are willing to see yourself as unloving, you will *not* be happy. You are condemning yourself and *must* therefore regard yourself as inadequate. Would you look to the ego to help you escape from a sense of inadequacy it has *produced* and must *maintain* for its existence? Can you *escape* from its evaluation of you by using its methods for keeping this picture *intact*? You cannot evaluate an insane belief system from *within* it. Its own range precludes this. You can only go *beyond* it, look back from a point where *sanity* exists, *and* *see the contrast*. Only *by* this contrast can insanity be judged as insane. With the grandeur of God in you, you have chosen to be little and to lament your littleness. *Within* the system which dictated this choice, the lament *is* inevitable. Your littleness is taken for granted there, and you do *not* ask, “Who granted it?” The question is meaningless within the ego's thought system, because it opens the *whole* thought system to question. We said before that the ego does not know what a real question is. Lack of knowledge of any kind is always associated with *unwillingness* to know and produces a total lack of knowledge simply because knowledge *is* total. *Not* to question your littleness, therefore, is to deny *all* knowledge and keep the ego's *whole* thought system intact. You cannot retain *part* of a thought system, because it can be questioned *only* at its foundation. And this must be questioned from beyond it, because, *within* it, its foundation *does* stand. The Holy Spirit judges against the reality of the ego's thought system merely because He knows its *foundation* is not true. Therefore, nothing that arises from it means anything. The Holy Spirit judges every belief you hold in terms of where it comes from. If it comes from God, He knows it to be true. If it does not, He knows that it is meaningless. Whenever you question your value, say: *God Himself is incomplete without me*. Remember this when the ego speaks, and you will not hear it. The truth about you is so lofty that nothing unworthy of God is worthy of you. Choose, then, what you want in these terms and accept nothing that you would not offer to God as wholly fitting for Him, for you do not *want* anything else. Return your part of Him, and He will give you all of Himself in exchange for your return of what belongs to Him and renders Him complete.

Grandeur is of God and *only* of Him. Therefore, it is in you. Whenever you become aware of it, however dimly, you abandon the ego automatically, because in the presence of the grandeur of God the meaninglessness of the ego becomes perfectly apparent. Though it does not understand this, the ego believes that its “enemy” has struck and attempts to offer gifts to induce you to return to its “protection.” *Self*\-inflation \[is the only offering it can make. The grandiosity\] of the ego is its alternative to the grandeur of God. Which will you choose? Grandiosity is *always* a cover for despair. It is without hope because it is not real. It is an attempt to counteract your littleness, based on the belief that the littleness is *real*. Without this belief, grandiosity is meaningless, and you could not possibly want it. The essence of grandiosity is competitiveness, because it *always* involves attack. It is a delusional attempt to *outdo* but *not* to undo. We said before that the ego vacillates between suspiciousness and viciousness. It remains suspicious as long as you despair of yourself. It shifts to viciousness whenever you will not tolerate self-abasement and seek relief. Then it offers you the illusion of attack as a solution. The ego does not know the difference between grandeur and grandiosity, because it does not know the difference between miracle impulses and ego-alien beliefs of its own. We once said that the ego *is* aware of threat, but does not make distinctions between two entirely different kinds of threat to its existence. Its own profound sense of vulnerability renders it incapable of judgment *except* in terms of attack. When it experiences threat, its only decision is whether to attack *now* or to withdraw to attack later. If you accept its offer of grandiosity, it will attack immediately. If you do not, it will wait. The ego is immobilized in the presence of God's grandeur, because *His* grandeur establishes *your* freedom. Even the faintest hint of your reality literally drives the ego from your mind because of complete lack of investment in it. Grandeur is totally *without* illusions, and because it is real, it is compellingly convincing. Yet the conviction of reality will not remain with you unless you do not allow the ego to attack it. The ego will make every effort to recover and mobilize its energies *against* your release. It will tell you that you are insane and argue that grandeur *cannot* be a real part of you because of the littleness in which *it* believes. Yet your grandeur is not delusional, *because* you did not make it. *You* have made grandiosity and are afraid of it because it is a form of attack, but your grandeur is of God, Who created it out of His Love. From your grandeur you can only bless, because your grandeur is your *abundance*. By blessing, you hold it in your mind, protecting it from illusions and keeping yourself in the Mind of God. Remember always that you cannot be anywhere *except* in the Mind of God. When you forget this, you *will* despair, and you *will* attack. The ego depends *solely* on your willingness to tolerate it. If you are willing to look upon your grandeur, you *cannot* despair, and therefore you cannot *want* the ego. Your grandeur is God's *answer* to the ego because it is true. Littleness and grandeur cannot co-exist, nor is it possible for them to alternate in your awareness. Littleness and grandiosity can and *must* alternate in your awareness since both are untrue and are therefore on the same level. Being the level of shift, it is experienced as shifting, and extremes are its essential characteristic. Truth and littleness are *denials* of each other, because grandeur *is* truth. Truth does not vacillate; it is *always* true. When grandeur slips away from you, you have replaced it with something *you* have made. Perhaps it is the belief in littleness; perhaps it is the belief in grandiosity. Yet it *must* be insane because it is *not* true. Your grandeur will *never* deceive you, but your illusions *always* will. Illusions *are* deceptions. You cannot triumph, but you *are* exalted. And in your exalted state, you seek others like you and rejoice with them. It is easy to distinguish grandeur from grandiosity because love is returned, but pride is not. Pride will not produce miracles and therefore will deprive you of your true witnesses to your reality. Truth is not obscure nor hidden, but its obviousness to *you* lies in the joy you bring to its witnesses, who *show* it to you. They attest to your grandeur, but they cannot attest to pride, because pride is not shared. God *wants* you to behold what He created, because it is His joy. Can your grandeur be arrogant when God Himself witnesses to it? And what can be real that *has* no witnesses? What good can come of it? And if no good can come of it, the Holy Spirit cannot use it. What He cannot transform to the Will of God does not exist at all. Grandiosity is delusional, because it is used to *replace* your grandeur. Yet what God has created cannot *be* replaced. God is incomplete without you, because His grandeur is total, and you cannot *be* missing from it. You are altogether irreplaceable in the Mind of God. No one else can fill your part of it, and while you leave your part of it empty, your eternal place merely waits for your return. God, through His Voice, reminds you of it, and God Himself keeps your extensions safe within it. Yet you do not know them until you return to them. You *cannot* replace the Kingdom, and you cannot replace *yourself.* God, Who *knows* your value, would not have it so, and so it is *not* so. Your value is in *God's* Mind and therefore not in yours alone. To accept yourself as God created you cannot be arrogance, because it is the *denial* of arrogance. To accept your littleness *is* arrogant, because it means that you believe *your* evaluation of yourself is *truer* than God's. Yet if truth is indivisible, your evaluation of yourself must *be* God's. You did not establish your value, and it *needs* no defense. Nothing can attack it or prevail over it. It does not vary. It merely *is*. Ask the Holy Spirit *what* it is and He will tell you, but do not be afraid of His answer, for it comes from God. It *is* an exalted answer because of its Source, but the Source is true and so is Its answer. Listen and do not question what you hear, for God does not deceive. He would have you replace the ego's belief in littleness with His own exalted answer to the question of your being, so that you can cease to question it and *know* it for what it *is*.

Nothing beyond yourself can make you fearful or loving, because nothing *is* beyond you. Time and eternity are both in your mind and *will* conflict until you perceive time solely as a means to *regain* eternity. You cannot do this as long as you believe that *anything* which happens to you is caused by factors *outside* yourself. You must learn that time is solely at *your* disposal, and that nothing in the world can take this responsibility from you. You can *violate* God's laws in your imagination, but you cannot *escape* from them. They were established for your protection and are as inviolate as your safety. God created nothing beside you, and nothing beside you exists, for you are part of Him. What except Him *can* exist? Nothing *beyond* Him can happen, because nothing *except* Him is real. Your creations add to Him as *you* do, but nothing is added that is different, because everything has always *been.* What can upset you except the ephemeral, and how can the ephemeral be real if you are God's *only* creation, and He created you eternal? Your holy will establishes *everything* that happens to you. *Every* response you make to *everything* you perceive is up to you, because your will determines your perception of it. God does not change His Mind about *you*, for He is not uncertain of *Himself*. And what He knows *can* be known because He does not know only for Himself. He created you for Himself, but He gave you the power to create for *your* self so you could be like Him. That is *why* your will is holy. Can anything exceed the love of God? Can anything, then, exceed *your* will? Nothing can reach you from beyond it because, being in God, *you* encompass everything. Believe this, and you *will* realize how much is up to you. When anything threatens your peace of mind, ask yourself, *Has God changed His Mind about me?* Then *accept* His decision, for it is indeed changeless, and refuse to change your mind about *yourself*. God will never decide *against* you, or He would be deciding against Himself. The reason you do not know *your* creations is simply that you would decide against them as long as your minds are split, and to attack what you have created is impossible. But remember that it is *as impossible for God*. The law of creation is that you love your creations as yourself because they *are* part of you. Everything that was created is therefore perfectly safe, because the laws of God protect it by His Love. Any part of your mind that does not know this has banished itself from knowledge because it has not met its conditions. Who could have done this but you? Recognize this gladly, for in this recognition lies the realization that your banishment is *not* of God and therefore does not exist. You are at home in God, dreaming of exile but perfectly capable of awakening to reality. Is it your will to do so? You know from your own experience that what you see in dreams you think is real as long as you are asleep. Yet the instant you waken, you *know* that everything that *seemed* to happen did not happen at all. You do not think this mysterious, even though all the laws of what you awakened *to* were violated while you slept. Is it not possible that you merely shifted from one dream to another, without *really* wakening? Would you bother to reconcile what happened in conflicting dreams, or would you dismiss both together if you discovered that reality is in accord with neither? You do not remember being awake. When you hear the Holy Spirit, you merely feel better because loving seems *possible* to you, but you do *not* remember yet that it once was so. And it is in this remembering that you will know it can be so again. What is possible has not yet been accomplished. Yet what has once been is so *now* if it is eternal. When you remember, you will know what you remember *is* eternal and therefore *is* now. You will remember everything the instant you *desire it wholly*, for if to desire wholly is to create, you will have willed away the separation, returning your mind simultaneously to your Creator and your creations. Knowing *them*, you will have no wish to sleep but only the will to waken and be glad. Dreams will be impossible, because you will *want* only truth, and being at last your will, it will be yours.

Unless you *know* something, you *cannot* dissociate it. Knowledge therefore *precedes* dissociation, and dissociation is nothing more than a *decision to forget.* What has been forgotten then appears to be fearful, but *only* because the dissociation was an *attack* on truth. You are fearful *because* you have forgotten. And you have *replaced* your knowledge by an awareness of dreams because you are *afraid* of your dissociation, *not* of what you have dissociated. Even in this world's therapy, when dissociated material is *accepted*, it ceases to be fearful, for the laws of mind always hold. Yet to give up the dissociation of *reality* brings more than merely lack of fear. In *this* decision lie joy and peace and the glory of creation. Offer the Holy Spirit only your will to remember, for He retains the knowledge of God and of yourself *for* you, waiting for your acceptance. Give up gladly *everything* that would stand in the way of your remembering, for God is in your memory, and His Voice will tell you that you are part of Him when you are willing to remember Him and know your own reality again. Let nothing in this world delay your remembering of Him, for in this remembering is the knowledge of *yourself*. To remember is merely to restore to your mind *what is already there*. You do not *make* what you remember; you merely accept again what has been made but was rejected. The ability to accept truth in this world is the perceptual counterpart of creating in the Kingdom. God will do His part if you will do yours, and *His* return in exchange for yours is the exchange of knowledge *for* perception. *Nothing* is beyond His Will for you. But signify your will to remember Him and behold! He will give you everything but for the asking. When you attack, you are denying *yourself.* You are specifically teaching yourself that you are *not* what you are. Your denial of reality precludes the *acceptance* of God's gift, because you have accepted something *else* in its place. If you understand that the misuse of defenses always constitutes an attack on truth and truth is God, you will realize why this is *always* fearful. If you further recognize that you are *part* of God, you will understand why it is that you always attack yourself *first*. \[*All* attack is self-attack. It cannot *be* anything else. Arising from your *own* decision *not* to be what you *are, it is an attack on your identification*. Attack is thus the way in which your identification is lost because, when you attack, you *must* have forgotten what you are. You really cannot attack. And if your reality is God's, when *you* attack you are not remembering *Him*. This is not because He is gone, but because you are *actively willing not to remember Him*.\] [^1] If you realized the complete havoc this makes of your peace of mind, you could not make such an insane decision. You make it only because you still believe that it can *get* you something you *want.* It follows, then, that you want something *other* than peace of mind, but you have not considered what it must be. Yet the logical outcome of your decision is perfectly clear if you will *look* at it. By deciding *against* your reality, you have made yourself vigilant *against* God and His Kingdom. And it is *this* vigilance that makes you afraid to remember Him. You have *not* attacked God, and you *do* love Him. Can you change your reality? No one can will to destroy himself. When you think you are attacking yourself, it is a sure sign that you hate what you *think* you are. And this, and *only* this, can *be* attacked by you. What you *think* you are can be hateful, and what this strange image makes you do can be very destructive. Yet the destruction is no more real than the image, although those who make idols *do* worship them. The idols are nothing, but their worshipers are the Sons of God in sickness. God would have them released from their sickness and returned to His Mind. He will not *limit* your power to help them, because He has *given* it to you. Do not be afraid of it, because it is your salvation. What Comforter can there be for the sick Children of God except His power through *you*? Remember that it does not matter *where* in the Sonship He is accepted. He is *always* accepted for all, and when *your* mind receives Him, the remembrance of Him awakens throughout the Sonship. Heal your brothers simply by accepting God *for* them. Your minds are not separate, and God has only one channel for healing, because He has but one Son. His remaining communication link with all His Children joins them together and them to Him. To be aware of this is to heal them, because it is the awareness that no one is separate, and so no one is sick. To believe that a Son of God *can* be sick is to believe that part of God can suffer. Love *cannot* suffer, because it cannot attack. The remembrance of love therefore brings invulnerability with it. Do not side with sickness in the presence of a Son of God even if *he* believes in it, for *your* acceptance of God in him *acknowledges* the Love of God which he has forgotten. Your recognition of him as *part* of God teaches him the truth about himself, which *he* is denying. Would you *strengthen* his denial of God and thus lose sight of *yourself*? Or would you remind him of his wholeness and remember your Creator *with* him? To believe a Son of God is sick is to worship the same idol he does. God created love, *not* idolatry. All forms of idolatry are caricatures of creation, taught by sick minds which are too divided to know that creation *shares* power and *never* usurps it. Sickness is idolatry because it is the belief that power can be taken *from* you. Yet this is impossible because you are part of God, Who *is* all power. A sick god *must* be an idol, made in the image of what its maker thinks *he* is. And that is exactly what the ego *does* perceive in a Son of God; a sick god, self-created, self-sufficient, very vicious, and very vulnerable. Is *this* the idol you would worship? Is *this* the image you would be vigilant to *save*? \[Are you *really* afraid of losing *this*?\] Look calmly at the logical conclusion of the ego's thought system and judge whether its offering is really what you want, for this *is* what it offers you. To *obtain* this you are willing to attack the divinity of your brothers and thus lose sight of *yours*. And you are willing to keep it hidden and to protect this idol, which you think will save you from the dangers which the idol itself *stands for*, but which do not exist. There are no idolaters in the Kingdom, but there is great appreciation for every Soul which God created because of the calm knowledge that each one is part of Him. God's Son knows no idols, but he *does* know his Father. Health in this world is the counterpart of value in Heaven. It is not my merit that I contribute to you but my love, for you do not value yourselves. When you do not value yourself, you become sick, but *my* value of you can heal you because the value of God's Son is one. When I said, “My peace I give unto you,” I meant it. Peace came from God through me to *you*. It was for you, although you did not ask. When a brother is sick, it is because he is *not* asking for peace and therefore does not know he *has* it. The *acceptance* of peace is the denial of illusion, and sickness *is* an illusion. Yet every Son of God has the power to deny illusions *anywhere* in the Kingdom merely by denying them completely in himself. *I* can heal you because I *know* you. I know your value *for* you, and it is this value that makes you whole. A whole mind is not idolatrous and does not know of conflicting laws. I will heal you merely because I have only *one* message, and it is true. Your faith in it will make you whole when you have faith in me. I do not bring God's message with deception, and you will learn this as you learn that you always receive as much as you *accept.* You could accept peace *now* for everyone you meet and offer them perfect freedom from *all* illusions because *you* heard. But have no other gods before Him, or you will *not* hear. God is not jealous of the gods you make, but *you* are. You would save them and serve them, because you believe that they made *you*. You think they are your father because you are projecting onto them the fearful fact that *you* made them to *replace* God. Yet when they seem to speak to you, remember that nothing *can* replace God, and whatever replacements you have attempted *are* nothing. Very simply, then, you may *believe* you are afraid of nothingness, but you are really afraid of *nothing*. And in *that* awareness you are healed. You *will* hear the god you listen to. You *made* the god of sickness, and *by* making him, you made yourself able to hear him. Yet you did not create him, because he is *not* the Will of the Father. He is therefore not eternal and will be *unmade* for you the instant you signify your willingness to accept *only* the eternal. If God has but one Son, there is but one God. You share reality with Him, *because* reality is not divided. To accept other gods before Him is to place other images before *yourself*. You do not realize how much you listen to your gods and how vigilant you are on their behalf. Yet they exist only *because* you honor them. Place honor where it is due, and peace will be yours. It is your inheritance from your *real* Father. You cannot make your father, and the father you made did not make you. Honor is not due to illusions, for to honor them is to honor nothing. Yet fear is not due them either, for nothing cannot be fearful. You have chosen to fear love *because* of its perfect harmlessness, and because of this fear, you have been willing to give up your own perfect helpfulness and your own perfect Help. Only at the altar of God will you find peace. And this altar is in you, because God put it there. His Voice still calls you to return, and He will be heard when you place no other gods before Him. You can give up the god of sickness for your brothers; in fact, you would *have* to do so if you give him up for yourself. For if you see him anywhere, you have accepted him. And if you accept him, you *will* bow down and worship him because he was made as God's replacement. He is the belief that you can *choose* which god is real. Although it is perfectly clear that this has nothing to do with reality, it is equally clear that it has *everything* to do with reality as you perceive it. [^1]: Paragraph 9.72 does not appear in the *Original Edition* manuscript. Previously numbered as paragraph 71a, the content was restored in the 2009 Printing from an earlier manuscript. Starting with the 2012 Printing, paragraphs 72 through the end of Chapter 9 have been renumbered. –*Ed*.

*All* magic is a form of reconciling the irreconcilable. All religion is the recognition that the irreconcilable cannot *be* reconciled. Sickness and perfection *are* irreconcilable. If God created you perfect, you *are* perfect. If you believe you can be sick, you have placed other gods before Him. God is not at war with the god of sickness you made, but *you* are. He is the symbol of willing *against* God, and you are afraid of him, *because* he cannot be reconciled with God's Will. If you attack him, you will make him real to you. But if you refuse to worship him in whatever form he may appear to you and wherever you think you see him, he will disappear into the nothingness out of which he was made. Reality can dawn only on an unclouded mind. It is always there to be accepted, but its acceptance depends on your willingness to *have* it. To know reality must involve the willingness to judge *unreality* for what it is. This is the *right* use of selective perception. To overlook nothingness is merely to judge it correctly, and because of your ability to evaluate it truly, *to let it go*. Knowledge cannot dawn on a mind full of illusions because truth and illusions are irreconcilable. Truth is whole and *cannot* be known by part of a mind. The Sonship cannot be perceived as *partly* sick, because to perceive it that way is not to perceive it at all. If the Sonship is one, it is one in *all* respects. Oneness *cannot* be divided. If you perceive other gods, your mind is split, and you will not be able to *limit* the split because the split *is* the sign that you have removed part of your mind from God's Will, and this means it is out of control. To be out of control is to be out of *reason*, and the mind *does* become unreasonable without reason. This is merely a matter of definition. By *defining* the mind wrongly, you perceive it as *functioning* wrongly. God's laws will keep your minds at peace, because peace is His Will, and His laws are established to uphold it. His are the laws of freedom, but yours are the laws of bondage. Since freedom and bondage are irreconcilable, their laws cannot *be* understood together. The laws of God work only for your good, and there *are* no other laws beside His. Everything else is merely lawless and therefore chaotic. Yet God Himself has protected everything He created *by* His laws. Therefore, everything that is not under them does not exist. “Laws of chaos” are meaningless by definition. Creation is perfectly lawful, and the chaotic is without meaning because it is without *God*. You have given your peace to the gods you made, but they are not there to take it from you, and you are not able to give it to them. You are *not* free to give up freedom, but only to *deny* it. You *cannot* do what God did not intend, because what He did not intend *does not happen.* Your gods do not *bring* chaos; you are *endowing* them with chaos and accepting it of them. All this has never been. Nothing but the laws of God has ever operated, and nothing except His Will will ever be. You were created through His laws and by His Will, and the manner of your creation established you *as* creators. What you have made is so unworthy of you that you could hardly want it if you were willing to see it *as it is*. You will see nothing at all. And your vision will automatically look beyond it to what is in you and all around you. Reality cannot break through the obstructions you interpose, but it *will* envelop you completely when you let them go. When you have experienced the protection of God, the making of idols becomes inconceivable. There are no strange images in the Mind of God, and what is not in His Mind cannot be in yours because you are of *One* Mind and that Mind belongs to *Him*. It is yours, *because* it belongs to Him, for ownership is sharing to Him. And if it is so for Him, it is so for you. His definitions *are* His laws, for by them He established the universe as what it is. No false gods you attempt to interpose between yourself and your reality affect truth at all. Peace is yours because God created you. And He created nothing else. The miracle is the act of a Son of God who has laid aside all false gods and who calls on his brothers to do likewise. It is an act of faith, because it is the recognition that his brother can do it. It is a call to the Holy Spirit in his mind, a call to Him which is strengthened by this joining. Because the miracle worker has heard Him, he strengthens His Voice in a sick brother by weakening his *belief* in sickness, which he does *not* share. The power of one mind *can* shine into another, because all the lamps of God were lit by the same spark. It is everywhere, and it is eternal. In many only the spark remains, for the Great Rays are obscured. Yet God has kept the spark alive so that the rays can never be completely forgotten. If you but see the little spark, you will learn of the greater light, for the rays are there unseen. Perceiving the spark will heal, but knowing the light will create. Yet in the returning, the little light must be acknowledged first, for the separation was a descent from magnitude to littleness. But the spark is still as pure as the great light, because it is the remaining call of creation. Put all your faith in it, and God Himself will answer you.

The rituals of the god of sickness are strange and very demanding. Joy is never permitted, for depression is the sign of allegiance to him. Depression means that you have foresworn God. Men are afraid of blasphemy, but they do not know what it means. They do not realize that to deny God is to deny their *own* identity, and in this sense the wages of sin *is* death. The sense is very literal; denial of life perceives its opposite, as *all* forms of denial replace what *is* with what is *not.* No one can really do this, but that you can *think* you can and believe you *have* is beyond dispute. Do not forget, however, that to deny God will inevitably result in projection, and you will believe that others, *and not yourself*, have done this to you. You will receive the message you give, because it is the message you *want*. You may believe that you judge your brothers by the messages they give *you*, but *you* have judged *them* by the message you give to *them*. Do not attribute your denial of joy to them, or you cannot see the spark in them that could bring joy to *you.* It is the *denial* of the spark that brings depression, and whenever you see your brothers *without* it, you *are* denying God. Allegiance to the denial of God is the ego's religion. The god of sickness obviously demands the denial of health, because health is in direct opposition to its own survival. But consider what this means to *you. Unless* you are sick, you cannot keep the gods you made, for only in sickness could you possibly *want* them. Blasphemy, then, is *self*\-destructive, *not* God-destructive. It means that you are willing *not* to know yourself *in* *order* to be sick. This is the offering which your god demands because, having made him out of *your* insanity, he is an insane idea. He has many forms, but although he may seem like many different things he is but one idea—the denial of God. Sickness and death entered the Mind of God's Son *against* His Will. The “attack on God” made His Son think he was fatherless, and out of his depression, he made the god of depression. This was his alternative to joy, because he would not accept the fact that, although he was a creator, he had been created. Yet the Son *is* helpless without the Father, Who alone is his help. We said before that of yourselves you can do nothing, but you are not *of* yourselves. If you were, what you have made would be true, and you could *never* escape. It is *because* you did not make yourselves that you need be troubled by nothing. Your gods are nothing, because your Father did not create them. You cannot make creators who are unlike your Creator any more than He could have created a Son who was unlike Him. If creation is sharing, it cannot create what is unlike itself. It can share only what it *is*. Depression is isolation, and so it could not have *been* created. Son of God, you have not sinned, but you *have* been much mistaken. Yet this can be corrected, and God will help you, *knowing* that you could not sin against Him. You denied Him *because* you loved Him, knowing that if you *recognized* your love for Him, you *could* not deny Him. Your denial of Him therefore means that you love Him and that you know *He* loves *you*. Remember that what you deny, you *must* have known. And if you accept denial, you can accept its *undoing*. Your Father has not denied you. He does not retaliate, but He *does* call to you to return. When you think He has not answered your call, *you* have not answered *His*. He calls to you from every part of the Sonship because of His Love for His Son. If you *hear* His message, He has answered you, and you will learn of Him if you hear aright. The Love of God is in everything He created, for His Son is everywhere. Look with peace upon your brothers, and God will come rushing into your heart in gratitude for your gift to Him. Do not look to the god of sickness for healing but only to the God of love, for healing is the *acknowledgment* of Him. When you acknowledge Him, you will *know* that He has never ceased to acknowledge *you* and that in His acknowledgment of you lies your Being. You are not sick, and you cannot die. But you *can* confuse yourself with things that do. Remember, though, that to do this *is* blasphemy, for it means that you are looking without love on God and His creation, from which He cannot *be* separated. Only the eternal can be loved, for love does not die. What is of God is His forever, and you *are* of God. Would He allow Himself to suffer? And would He offer His Son anything that is not acceptable to Him? If you will accept yourself as God created you, you will be incapable of suffering. Yet to do this, you must acknowledge Him as your Creator. This is not because you will be punished otherwise. It is merely because your acknowledgment of your Father *is* the acknowledgment of yourself as you are. Your Father created you wholly without sin, wholly without pain, and wholly without suffering of any kind. If you deny Him, you bring sin, pain, and suffering into your *own* mind because of the power He gave it. Your mind is capable of creating worlds, but it can also deny what it creates because it is free. You do not realize how much you have denied yourself, and how much God in His Love would not have it so. Yet He would not interfere with you, because He would not know His Son if he were not free. To interfere with you would be to attack Himself, and God is not insane. When you denied Him, *you* were insane. Would you have Him *share* your insanity? God will never cease to love His Son, and His Son will never cease to love Him. That was the condition of His Son's creation, fixed forever in the Mind of God. To know that is sanity. To deny it is insanity. God gave Himself to you in your creation, and His gifts are eternal. Would you deny yourself to Him? Out of your gifts to Him, the Kingdom will be restored to His Son. His Son removed himself *from* His gift by refusing to accept what had been created for him and what he himself had created in the Name of his Father. Heaven waits for his return, for it was created as the dwelling place of God's Son. You are not at home anywhere else or in any other condition. Do not deny yourself the joy which was created for you for the misery you have made for yourselves. God has given you the means for undoing what you have made. Listen, and you *will* learn what you are. If God knows His Children as wholly sinless, it is blasphemous to perceive them as guilty. If God knows His Children as wholly without pain, it is blasphemous to perceive suffering anywhere. If God knows His Children to be wholly joyous, it is blasphemous to feel depressed. All of these illusions and the many other forms which blasphemy may take are *refusals* to accept creation as it is. If God created His Son perfect, that is how you must learn to see him to learn of his reality. And as *part* of the Sonship, that is how you must see *yourself* to learn of *yours.* Do not perceive *anything* God did not create, or you are denying *Him*. His is the *only* Fatherhood, and it is yours only because *He* has given it to you. Your gifts to yourself are meaningless, but your gifts to *your* creations are like His because they are given in His Name. That is why your creations are as real as His. Yet the real Fatherhood must be acknowledged if the real Son is to be known. You believe that the sick things which you have made are your real creations, because you believe that the sick images you perceive *are* the Sons of God. Only if you accept the Fatherhood of God will you have *anything*, because His Fatherhood *gave* you everything. That is why to deny Him *is* to deny yourself. Arrogance is the denial of love, because love *shares* and arrogance *withholds*. As long as both appear to you to be desirable, the concept of choice, which is *not* of God, will remain with you. While this is not true in eternity, it *is* true in time, so that while time lasts in *your* minds, there *will* be choices. Time *itself* was your choice. If you would remember eternity, you must learn to look *only* on the eternal. If you allow yourselves to become preoccupied with the temporal, you *are* living in time. As always, your choice is determined by what you value. Time and eternity cannot both be real, because they contradict each other. If you will accept only what is timeless as real, you will begin to understand eternity and make it yours.