IA´s Journal

HOW IS HEALING ACCOMPLISHED?

Healing involves an understanding of what the illusion of sickness
is for. Healing is impossible without this.

1. The perceived purpose of sickness

Healing is accomplished the instant the sufferer no longer sees
any value in pain. Who would choose suffering unless he thought
it brought him something, and something of value to him? He must
think it is a small price to pay for something of greater worth. For
sickness is an election; a decision. It is the choice of weakness,
in the mistaken conviction that it is strength. When this occurs, real
strength is seen as threat and health as danger. Sickness is a
method, conceived in madness, for placing God´s Son on his
Father´s throne. God is seen as outside, fierce and powerful, eager
to keep all power for Himself. Only by His death can He be conquered
by His Son.
And what, in this insane conviction, does healing stand for? It
symbolizes the defeat of God´s Son and the triumph of his Father
over him. It represents the ultimate defiance in a direct form which
the Son of God is forced to recognize. It stands for all that he would
hide from himself to protect his "life." If he is healed, he is responsible
for his thoughts. And if he is responsible for his thoughts, he will be
killed to prove to him how weak and pitiful he is. But if he chooses
death himself, his weakness is his strength.
Now has he given himself what God would give to him, and thus
entirely usurped the throne of his Creator.

Love

2. The shift in perception.

Healing must occur in exact proportion to which the valelessness
of sickness is recognized. One need but say, "There is no gain at
all to me in this" and he is healed. But to say this, one first must
recognize certain facts. First, it is obvious that decisions are of the
mind, not of the body. If sickness is but a faulty problem-solvning
approach, it is a decision. And if it is a decision, it is the mind and
not the body that makes it. The resistance to recognizing this is
enormous, because the existence of the world as you perceive it
depends on the body being the decision-maker. Terms like "instincts,"
"reflexes" and the like represent attempts to endow the body with
non-mental motivators. Actually, such terms merely state or decribe
the problem. They do not answer it.
The acceptance of sickness as a decision of the mind, for a purpose
for which it would use the body, is the basis of healing.
And this is so for healing in all forms. A patient decides that this is so,
and he recovers. If he decides against recovery. he will not be healed.
Who is the physician? Only the mind of the patient himself.
The outcome is what he decides that it is. Special agents seem to be
ministering to him, yet they but give form to his own choice. He chooses
them in order to bring tangible form to his desires. And it is this they do,
and nothing else. They are not actually needed at all.
The patient could merely rise up without their aid and say, "I have no use
for this." There is no form of sickness that would not be cured at once.
What ist he single requisite for this shift in perception? it is simly this;
The recognition that sickness is of the mind, and has nothing to do with
the body. What does this recognition "cost"? It cost´s the whole world
you see, for the world will never again appear to rule the mind.
For with this recognition is responsibility placed where it belongs;
not with the world, but on him who looks on the world and sees it as
it is not. He looks on what he chooses to see. No more and no less.
The world does nothing to him. He only thought it did. Nor does he do
anything to the world, because he was mistaken about what it is.
Herein is the release from guilt and sickness both, for they are one.
Yet to accept this release, the insignificance of the body must be an
acceptable idea.
With this idea is pain forever gone. But with this idea goes also all
confusion about creation. Does not this follow of necessity? Place
cause and effect in their true sequence in one respect, and the
learning will generalize and transform the world. The transfer value
of one true idea has no end or limit. The final outcome of this leasson
is the remembrance of God. What do guilt and sickness, pain, disaster
and all suffering mean now? Having no purpose, they are gone.
And with them also go all the effects they seemed to cause.
Cause and effect but replicate creation. Seen in their proper perspective,
without distortion and without fear, they re-establish Heaven.

Love

3. The function of the teacher of God.

If the patient must change his mind in order to be healed, what does
the teacher of God do? Can he change the patient´s mind for him?
Certainly not. For those already willing to change their minds he has
no function except to rejoice with them, for they have become teachers
of God with him. He has, however, a more specific function of those who
do not understand what healing is. These patients do not realize they
have chosen sickness. On the contrary, they believe that sicness has
chosen them. Nor are they openminded on this point. The body tells
them what to do and they obey. They have no idea how insane this
concept is. If they even suspected it, they would be healed. Yet they
suspect nothing. To them the separation is quite real.
To them God´s teachers come, to represent another choice which they
has forgotten. The simple presence of a teacher of God is a reminder.
His thoughts ask for the right to question what the patient has accepted
as true. As God´s messengers, His teachers are the symbols of salvation.
They ask the patient for forgiveness for God´s Son in his own Name.
They stand for a the Alternativ, With God´s Word in their minds they come
in benediction, not to heal the sick but to remind them of the remedy God has
already given them. It is not their hands that heal. It is not their voice that speaks
the Word of God. They merely give what has been given, Very gently they call
to their brothers to turn away from death. Behold, you Son of God, what Life
can offer you. Would you choose sickness in place of this?
Not once do the advanced teacher of God consider the forms of sickness in
which their brother believes. To do this is to forget that all of them have the
same purpose, and therefore are not really different. They seek for God´s Voice
in this brother who would so deceive himself as to belive God´s Son can suffer.
And they remind him that he did not make himself, and must remain as God
created him. They recognize illusions can have no effect. The truth in their
minds reaches out to the truth in the minds of their brothers, so that illusions
are not reinforced. They are thus brought to truth; truth is not brought to them.
So are they dispelled, not by the will of another, but by the One Will with Itself.
And this is the function of God´s teachers; to see no will as separate from their
own, nor theirs as separate from God´s.

Love

IS HEALING CERTAIN?

Healing is always certain. It is impossible to let illusions be
brought to truth and keep the illusions. Truth demonstrates
illusions have no value. The teacher of God has seen the
correction of his errors in the mind of the patient, recognizing
it for what it is. Having accepted the Atonement for himself,
he has also accepted it for the patient. Yet what if the patient
uses sickness as a way of life, believing healing is the way to
death? When this is so, a sudden healing might precipitate
intense depression, and a sense of loss so deep that the
patient might even try to destroy himself. Having nothing to
live for, he may ask for death. Healing must wait, for his protection.
Healing will always stand aside when it would be seen as threat.
The instant it is welcome it is there. Where healing has been given
it will be received. And what is time before the gifts of God?
We have referred many times in the text to the storehouse of treasures
laid up equally for the giver and the receiver of God´s gifts. Not one is
lost, for they can but increse. No teacher of God should feel disapponted
if he has offered healing and it does not appear to have been received.
It is not up to him to judge when his gift should be accepted. Let him be
certain it has been received, and trust that it will be accepted when it is
recognized as a blessing and not a curse.
It is not the function of God´s teachers to evaluate the outcome of their
gifts. It is merely their function to give them. Once they have done that
they have also given the outcome, for that is part of the gift. No one can
give if he is concerned with the result of giving. That is a limitation on
the giving itself, and neither the giver not the receiver would have the gift.
Trust is an essential part of giving; in fact, it is the part that makes sharing
possible, the part that guarantees the giver will not lose, but only gain.
Who gives a gift and then remains with it, to be sure it is used as the giver
deems appropriate? Such is not giving but imprisoning.
It is the relinquishing of all concern about the gift that makes it truly given.
And it is trust that makes true giving possible. Healing is the change of mind
that the Holy Spirit in the patient´s mind is seeking for him. And it is the Holy
Spirit in the mind of the giver Who gives the gift to him. How can it be lost?
How can it be ineffectual? How can it be wasted? God´s tresure house can
never be empty. And if one gift is missing, it would not be full. Yet is its fullness
guaranteed by God. What concern, then, can a teacher of God have about
what becomes of his gifts? Given by God to God, who in this holy Exchange
can recieve less than everything?

Love

SHOULD HEALING BE REPEATED?

This question answers itself. Healing cannot be repated. If the
patient is healed, what remains to heal him from? And if the
healing is certain, as we have already said it is, what is there
to repeat? For a teacher of God to remain concerned about
the result of healing is to limit the healing. It is now the teacher
of God himself whose mind needs to be healed. And it is this he
must facilitate. He is now the patient, and he must so regard
himself. He has made a mistake, and must be willing to change
his mind about it. He lacked the trust that makes for giving truly
and so he has not received the benefit of his gift.
Whenever a teacher of God has tried to be a channel for healing
he has succeeded. Should he be tempted to doubt this, he should
not repeat his previous effort. That was already maximal, because
the Holy Spirit so accepted it and so used it. Now the teacher of God
has only one course to follow. He must use his reason to tell himself
that he has given the problem to One Who cannot fail, and must
recognize that his own uncertainty is not love but fear, and therefore
hate. His position has thus become untenable, for he is offering hate
to one to whom he offered love. This is impossible. Having offered
love, only love can be received.
It is in this that the teacher of God must trust. This is what is really
meant by the statement that the one responsibility of the miracle
worker is to accept the Atonement for himself. The teacher of God
is a miracle worker because he gives the gifts he has received. Yet
he must first accept them. He need do no more, nor is there more
that he could do. By accepting healing he can give it. If he doubts
this, let him remember Who gave the gifts and Who received it.
Thus is his doubt corrected. He thought the gifts of God could be
withdrawn. That was a mistake, but hardly one to stay with. And
so the teacher of God can only recognize it for what it is, and let
be corrected for him.
One of the most difficult temptations to recognize is that to doubt
a healing because of the appearance of continuing symptoms is a
mistake in the form of lack of trust. As such it is an attack. Usually
it seemes to be just the osite. It does appear unreasonable at
first to be told that continued concern is attack. It has all the
appearances of love. Yet love without trust is impossible, and doubt
and trust cannot coexist. And hate must be the opposite of love,
regardless of the form it takes. Doubt not the gift and it is impossible
to doubt the result. This is the certainty that gives God´s teachers the
power to be miracle workers, for they have put their trust in Him.
The real basis for doubt about the outcome of any problem that has
been given to God´s Teacher for resolution is always self doubt
And that necessarily implies that trust has been placed in an illusory
self, for only such a self can be doubted. This illusion can take many
forms. Perhaps there is a fear of weakness and vulnerability.
Perhaps there is a fear of failure and shame associated with a sense
of inadequancy. Perhaps there is a guilty embarrassment stemming
from false humility. The form of the mistake is not important. What
is important is only recognition of a mistake as a mistake.
The mistake is always some form of concern with the self to the exlusion
of the patient. It is a failure to recognize him as part of the Self, and thus
represents a confusion in identity. Conflict about what you are has entered
your mind, and you have become deceived about yourself. And you are
deceived about yourself because you have denied the Source of your creation.
If you are offering only healing, you cannot doubt. Doubt is the reslut of
conflicting wishes. Be sure of what you want, and doubt becomes impossible.

Love

HOW CAN PERCEPTION OF ORDER OF DIFFICIULTIES BE AVOIDED?

The belief in order of difficiulties is the basis for the world´s perception.
It rests on differences; on uneven background and shifting foreground,
on unequal hights and diverses sizes, on varying degrees of darkness
and light; and thousands of contrasts in which each thing seen competes
with every other in order to be recognized. A larger object overshadows
a smaller one. A brighter thing draws the attention from another with less
intensity of appeal. And a more threatening idea, or one conceived of as
more desirable by the world´s standards, completely upsets the mental
balance. What the body`s eyes beholds is only conflict. Look not to them
for peace and understanding.
Illusions are always illusions of differences. How could it be otherwise? By
definition, an illusion is an attempt to make something real that is regarded
as of major importance, but is recognized as being untrue. The mind therefore
seeks to make it true our of its intensity of desire to have it for itself. Illusions
are travesties of creation; attempts to bring truth to lies. Finding truth unacceptable,
the mind revolts against truth and gives itself an illusion of victory. Finding health
a burden, it retreats into feverish dreams. And in these dreams the mind is separate,
different from other minds, with different interests of its own, and able to gratify its
needs at the expense of others.
It is in the sorting out and categorizing activities of the mind that errors in perception
enter. And it is here correction must be made. The mind classifies what the body`s
eyes bring to it according to its preconceived values, judging where each sense
datum fits best. What basis could be faultier than this? Unrecognized by itself, it has
itself asked to be given what will fit into these categories. And having done so, it
concludes that the categories must be true. On this the judgment of all differences
rests, because it is on this that judgments of the world depend. Can this confused and
senseless "reasoning" be depended on for anything?
There can be no order of difficulty in healing merely because all sickness is illusion.
Is it harder to dispel the belief of the insane in a larger hallucination as opposed to
a smaller one? Will he agree more quickly to the unreality of a louder voice he hears
than to that of a softer one? Will he dismiss more easily a whispered demand to kill
that a shout? And do the number of pitchforks the devils he sees carrying affect their
credibility in his perception? His mind has categorized them all as real, and so they
are all real to him. When he realizes they are all illusions they will disappear. And so
it is with healing. The properties of illusions which seem to make them different are
really irrelevant, for their properties are as illusory as they are.
The body`s eyes will continue to see differences. But the mind that has let itself be
healed will no longer acknowledge them. There will be those who seem to be "sicker"
than others, and the body´s eyes will report their changed appearances as before.
But the healed mind will put them all in one category; they are unreal. This is the gift
of its Teacher; the understanding that only two categories are meaningful in sorting
out the messages the mind receives from what appears to be the outside world.
And of these two, but one is real.
Just as reality is wholly real, apart from size and shape and time and place - for
differences cannot exist within it - so too are illusions without distinctions.
The one answer to sickness of any kind is healing.
The one answer to all illusions is truth.

Love

ARE CHANGES REQUIRED IN THE LIFE SITUATION OF GOD`s TEACHERS?

Changes are required in the minds of God´s teachers. This may
or may not involve changes in the extarnal situation. Remember
that no one is where he is by accident, and chance plays no part
in God´s plan. It is most unlikely that changes in attitudes would
not be the first step in the newly-made teacher of God´s training.
There is, however, no set pattern, since training is always highly
individualized. There are those who are called upon to change
theirs life situation almost immediately, but these are generally
special cases. By far the majority are given a slowly-evolving
training program. Relationships in particular must be properly
perceived, and all dark cornerstones of unforgiveness removed.
Otherwise the old thought system still has a basis for return.
As the teacher of God advances in his training, he learns one
lesson with increasing thorughness. He does not make his own
decisions; he asks his Teacher for His answer, and it is this he
follows as his guide for action. This becomes easier and easier,
as the teacher of God learns to give up his own judgment. The
giving up of judgment, the obvious prerequisite for hearing God`s
Voice, is usually a fairly slow process, not because it is difficult,
but because it is apt to be perceived as personally insulting. The
world´s training is directed toward achieving a goal in direct
opposition to that of our curriculum. The world trains for
reliance on one´s judgment as the criterion for maturity and
strength. Our curriculum trains for the relinquishment of judgment
as the necessary condition of salvation.

Love

HOW IS JUDGMENT RELINQUISHED?

Judgment, like other devices by which the world of illusions is maintained,
is totally misunderstood by the world. It is actually confused with wisdom
and substitutes for truth. As the world uses the term, an individual is capable
of "good" and "bad" judgment, and his education aims at strengthening the
former and minimizing the latter. There is, however, considerable confusion
about what these categories mean. What is "good" judgment to one is "bad"
judgment at another. Further, even the same person classifies the same action
as showing "good" judgment at one time and "bad" judgment at another time.
Nor can any consistent criteria for determining what these categories are be
really taught. At any time the student may disagree with what his would-be
teacher says about them, and the teacher himself may well be inconsistent
in what he believes. "Good" judgment, in these terms, does not mean anything.
No more does "bad".
It is necessary for the teacher of God to realize, not that he should not judge,
but that he cannot. In giving up judgment, he is merely giving up what he did
not have. He gives up an illusion; or better, he has an illusion of giving up. He
has actually merelly become more honest. Recognizing that judgment was always
impossible for him, he no longer attempts it. This is no sacrifice. On the contrary,
he puts himself in a position what judgment through him rather than by him can
occur. And this judgment is neither "good" nor "bad." It is the only judgment there
is, and it is only one: "God´s Son is guiltless, and sin does not exist."
The aim of our curriculum, unlike the goal of the world´s learning, is the recognition
that judgment in the usual sense is impossible. This is not an opinion but a fact.
In order to judge anything rightly, one would have to be fully aware of an inconceivably
wide range of things; past, present and to come. One would have to recognize in advance
all the effects of his judgments on everyone and everything involved in them in any way.
And one would have to be certain there is no distortion in his perception, so that his judgment
would be wholly fair to everyone on whom it rests now and in the future. Who is in a position
to do this? Who except in grandiose fantasies would claim this for himself?
Remember how many times you thought you knew all the "facts" you needed for judgment,
and how wrong you were! Is there anyone who has not had this experience? Would you know
how many times you merely thought you were right, without ever realizing you were wrong?
Why would you choose such an arbitrary basis for decision-making? Wisdom is not judgment;
it is the relinquishment of judgment. Make then but one more judgment.
It is this: There is Someone with you Whose judgment is perfect. He does know all the facts;
past, present and to come. He does know all the effects of His judgment on everyone and
everything involved in any way. And He is wholly fair to everyone, for there is no distortion
in His perception.
Therefore lay judgment down, not with regret but with a sigh of gratitude. Now are you free of
a burden so great that you could merely stagger and fall down beneath it. And it was all illusion.
Nothing more. Now can the teacher of God rise up unburdened, and walk lightly on. Yet it is not
only this that is his benfit? His sense of care is gone, for he has none. He has given it away, along
with judgment. He gave himself to Him Whose judgment he has chosen now to trust, instead of his
own. Now he makes no mistakes. His Guide is sure. And where he come to judge, he comes to
bless. Where now he laughs, he used to come to weep.
It is not difficult to relinquish judgment. But it is difficult indeed to try to keep it. The teacher of God
lays it down happily the instant he recognizes its cost. All of the ugliness he sees about him is its
outcome. All of the pain he looks upon is its result. All of the loneliness and sense of loss; of passing
time and growing hopelessness; of sickening despair and fear of death; all these have come or it.
And now he knows that these things need not be. Not one is true. For he has given up their cause,
and they, which never were but the effects of his mistaken choice, have fallen from him. Teacher
of God, this step will bring you peace. Can it be difficult to want but this?

Love

HOW IS PEACE POSSBILE IN THIS WORLD?

This is a question everyone must ask. Certainly peace seems to be impossible here.
Yet the Word of God promises other things that seem impossible, as well as this.
His Word has promied peace. It has also promised that there is no death, that resurrection
must occur, and that rebirth is man´s inheritance. The world you see cannot be the world
God loves, and yet His Word assures us that He loves the world. God´s Word has promised
that peace is possible here, and what He promises can hardly be impossible. But it is true
that the world must be looked at differently, if His promises are to be accepted. What the
world is, is but a fact. You cannot choose what this should be. But you can choose how you
would see it.
Indeed, you must choose this.
Again we come to the question of judgment. This time ask yourself whether your judgment
or the Word of God is more likely to be true. For they say different things about the world,
and things so opposite that it is pointless to try to reconcile them. God offers the world
salvation; your judgment would condemn it. God says there is no death; your judgment sees
but death as the inevitable end of life. God´s Word assures you that He loves the world;
your judgment says it is unlovable. Who is right? For one of you is wrong. It must be so.
The text explains that the Holy Spirit is the answer to all problems you have made. These
problems are not real, but that is meaningless to those who believe in them. And everyone
believes in what he made, for it was made by his believing it. Into this strange and paradoxical
situation, - one without meaning and devoid of sense, yet out of which no way seems possible, -
God has sent His Judgment to answer yours. Gently His Judgment substitutes for yours. And
through this substitution is the un-understandable made understandable. How is peace possible
in this world? In your judgment it is not possible, and can never be possible. But in the Judgment
of God what is reflected here is only peace.
Peace is impossible to those who look on war. Peace is inevitable to those who offer peace. How
easily, then, is your judgment of the world escaped! It is not the world that makes peace seem
impossible. It is the world you see that is impossible. Yet has God´s Judgment on this distorted
world redeemed it and made it fit to welcome peace. And peace descends on it in joyous answer.
Peace now belongs here, because a Thought of God has entered. What else but a Thought of
God turns hell to Heaven merely by being what it is? The earth bows before its gracious Presence,
and it leans down in answer, to raise it up again. Now is the question different.
It is no longer, "Can peace be possible in this world?" but instead, "Is it not impossible that peace be
absent here?"

Love

HOW MANY TEACHERS OF GOD ARE NEEDED TO
SAVE THE WORLD?

The answer to this question is - one. One wholly perfect teacher,
whose learning is complete, suffices. This one, sanctified and
redeemed, becomes the Self Who is the Son of God. He who was
always wholly spirit now no longer sees himself as a body, or even
as in a body. Therefore he is limitless. And being limitless, his
thoughts are joined with God´s forever and ever. His perception of
himself is based upon God´s Judgment, not his own. Thus does he
share God`s Will, and bring his thoughts to still deluded minds. He
is forever one, because he is as God created him. He has accepted
Christ, and he is saved.
Thus does the son of man become the Son of God. It is not really a
change; it is a change of mind. Nothing external alters, but everything
internal now reflects only the Love of God. God can no longer be feared,
for the mind sees no cause for punishment. God´s teachers appear to
be many, for that is what is the world´s need. Yet being joined in one
purpose, and one they share with God, how could they be separate from
each other? What does it matter if they then appear in many forms? Their
minds are one; their joining is complete. And God works through them now
as one, for that is what they are.
Why is illusion of many necessary? Only because reality is not understandable
to the deluded. Only very few can hear God´s Voice at all, and even they cannot
communicate His messages directly through the Spirit Which gave them. They
need a medium through which communication becomes possible to those who do
not realize that they are spirit. And body they can see. A voice they understand and
listen to, without the fear that truth would encounter in them. Do not forget that truth
can come only where it is welcomed without fear. So do God´s teachers need a body,
for their unity could not be recognized directly.
Yet what makes God´s teachers is their recognition of the proper purpose of the body.
As they advance in their profession, they become more and more certain that the body´s
function is but to let God´s Voice speak through it to human ears. And these ears will
carry to the mind of the hearer messages that are not of this world, and the mind will
understand because of their Sourse. From this understanding will come the recognition,
in this new teacher of God, of what the body´s purpose really is; the only use there really
is for it. This lesson is enough to let the thought of unity come in, and what is one is
recognized as one. The teacher of God appear to share the illusion of separation, but
because of what they use the body for, they do not believe in the illusion despite appearances.
The central lesson is always this; that what you use the body for it will become to you. Use it
for sin or for attack, which is the same as sin, and you will see it as sinful. Because it is sinful
it is weak, and being weak, it suffers and it dies. Use it to bring the Word of God to those who
have it not, and the body becomes holy. Because it is holy it cannot be sick, nor can it die. When
its usefulness is done it is laid by, and that is all. The mind makes this decision, as it makes all
decisions that are responsible for the body´s condition. Yet the teacher of God does not make
this decision alone. To do that would be to give the body another purpose from the one that keeps
it holy, God´s Voice will tell him when he has fulfilled his role, just as It tells him what his function is.
He does not suffer either in going or remaining. Sickness is now impossible to him.
Oneness and sickness cannot coexist. God´s teachers choose to look on dreams a while. It is a
conscious choice. For they have learned that all choices are made consciously, with full awareness of
their consequences. The dream says otherwise, but who would put his faith in dreams once they are
recognized for what they are? Awareness of dreaming is the real function of God´s teachers. They
watch the dream figures come and go, shift and change, suffer and die. Yet they are not decieved
by what they see. They recognize that to behold a dream figure as sick and separate is not more real
than to regard it as healthy and beautiful. Unity alone is not a thing of dreams. And it is this God´s
teachers acknowledge as behind the dream, beyond all seeming and yet surely theirs.

Love