ACIM VI. The Illusions of Needs, P 4, 5
VI. The Illusion of Needs. The real purpose of this world is to use it to correct your unbelief.
VI. The Illusion of Needs, P4
4 The real purpose of this world is to use it to correct your unbelief. You can never control the effects of fear yourself, because you made fear, and you believe in what you made. In attitude, then, though not in content, you resemble your Creator, Who has perfect faith in His creations because He created them. Belief produces the acceptance of existence. That is why you can believe what no one else thinks is true. It is true for you because it was made by you.
I feel reassured by this paragraph because it affirms my belief that my job here is to use the story I am experiencing to undo my belief in it. I made this world and all the stories in it, and because I made them, I believe in them. As Jesus says, I am like my Creator in this way. He created me and has perfect faith in me. I made the world and all I believe about the world, and so have faith in it.
The difference is the content. What God created is real, and what I made is illusion. What God created is perfect and whole and joyful and peaceful, invulnerable and eternal. But what I made is none of these things. It is uncertain and fluctuating. It is fearful and induces guilt, anger, and jealousy. Pain, suffering, and death are the inevitable outcomes. Quite a difference!
We Need Help
Regardless of the difference in content, it remains that our faith in our creation is strong, and so we need help to correct our thinking. We need something outside the ego thought system to do the healing. This is the reason I readily ask the Holy Spirit to heal my mind. I notice the effects of my beliefs. I accept responsibility for the effects of those beliefs, then I ask the Holy Spirit to undo what I have done.
This is really very simple. What is it in my life that seems to be causing me distress? When I was still working, it was that my boss was sometimes critical of my work. I recognized that his criticism was not frightening, but rather it is my thoughts about his criticism that scared me. My thought is that I would be fired, and that thought led to the thought that I will no longer have the means to take care of myself.
If I followed that thought far enough, I would see the belief that I was unworthy. I would see that I felt separate from God and guilty for that separation, and so God does not love me. In the end, there is only that one belief that needs to be corrected. A sense of separation from God is the only belief that I need heal. But it is the everyday occurrences in life that bring me to that belief so that it can be healed. Occurrences like being criticized by my boss.
Trying to Fix It
When I used to think it was my job to fix this, I would start trying to do better at work, hoping my boss noticed and change his mind about me. At the next level, I would try not to think thoughts of unworthiness and fear of God. I would hope I would be able to do this, and that would mean I wasn’t guilty of failing. At an even higher level, I realized those solutions would not work. I have no control over what my boss thinks or what he does.
I cannot control fear either because the more I think of that which I fear, the greater the fear seems to be. That which we focus on grows. Sort of the opposite effect I was hoping for. I do have control over my choices. I have two choices and can make either one.
One choice is to continue to try to manipulate and control from the level of Myron’s story. Or, seen from another perspective, I could try the same thing by attempting to undo what I made from within the system I set up. I tried both of these approaches, but neither worked nor only worked partially. For a long time, I kept trying anyway. Jesus says I did this because I placed my faith in what I made and so believed in it.
My second option is much simpler. I can choose to be healed by the Healer placed in my mind for that purpose. This will work, and nothing else will work. All of time has been for the purpose of experiencing what I have made and for the purpose of discovering that there is only one workable option for undoing what I have made.
Slow but Steady
It seems I have finally accepted this foregone conclusion. I am systematically looking at the results of mistaken beliefs, realizing I am no longer interested in them, and asking the Holy Spirit to do His job and heal my mind.
It seemed very slow going there for a while, and I was discouraged to see how long it was taking. In fact, I didn’t see any end in sight, but I gave my willingness and my trust to the Holy Spirit, and now I am beginning to see that grace is shifting me out of the world more quickly than I could have imagined possible. Sometimes I still fall back into fear when it seems I am moving too quickly.
I think that is the meaning of the night dreams I had for a while. I would be driving too fast over a bridge, feeling out of control and frightened of the speed I was going. Then I would notice that I had no steering wheel or that it didn’t work. I would wake up afraid. With more understanding of the work going on within me, I see the symbolism of the dream as my ego discouraging me from waking up and my fear of doing so.
My Destiny
But I can now see that my destiny lies ahead and not behind me, and though I stall out occasionally, there is no going back. I see that my destiny is set and always has been. I see now that I have absolutely no control over how life unfolds or when I stop watching the show. And I don’t care.
It’s more fun this way. As long as I remember my part, I am good. I observe what is going on in the story and notice how it makes Myron feel. I ask the Holy Spirit to heal what needs healing. Then I wait to discover what happens next. Whoopee! Hold on tight because who knows where this ride is taking me! But I believe it is perfectly safe. Holy Spirit, please undo all my unbelief.
VI. The Illusion of Needs, P 5
5 All aspects of fear are untrue because they do not exist at the creative level, and therefore do not exist at all. To whatever extent you are willing to submit your beliefs to this test, to that extent are your perceptions corrected. In sorting out the false from the true, the miracle proceeds along these lines: Perfect love casts out fear. If fear exists, Then there is not perfect love. 6 But: Only perfect love exists. If there is fear, It produces a state that does not exist. Believe this and you will be free. Only God can establish this solution, and this faith is His gift.
Here is something I wrote in my journal when my son was injured.
I spoke to my son again yesterday. He had gone to the doctor and was telling me what he learned about his injury and about possible solutions. Each time I speak to him about this, I get a chance to see what I believe. I get a chance to see if I am free. Yesterday I saw that I am not free. I felt his frustration and fear as if it were my own because it was. I can only feel what I believe, not what someone else believes.
Asking for Help
This morning I was asking for more clarity about this.
Me: Jesus, I want to understand how my fear does not exist. I want to know, really know, that fear does not exist. Here are my thoughts about this situation with Toby and his back injury. I accept that he is not that body and that who he really is cannot be injured, in pain, or suffer in any way. But he believes he is this body, and he believes it is injured.
His belief is strong, and it is causing him to suffer terribly, and the more he suffers, the harder it will be for him not to believe in suffering. His suffering, while not real in eternity, is very real to him in time. My prayer is not that his body is healed. I am clear on this. His body does not actually exist and is just a thought in the mind. I pray that his mind is healed of the belief in pain and suffering. This would take a miracle, and it is for this miracle I pray.
A Reflection
Jesus: I understand how you suffer when you think of your precious son in pain. You open your mind to be healed, and you see clearly that what he believes about himself cannot be true, then you see the evidence of his belief, and you cannot remember the truth. Do you see, my sweet one, that you and your son reflect each other? He believes in pain and suffering, and this belief is projected outward onto the body. You believe in pain and suffering, and this belief is projected outward, and you see his body in pain and suffering.
Me: No, I didn’t see that. Kind of obvious, isn’t it? Ok, back to accepting the Atonement for myself, right? My prayer is that my mind is healed of the belief in pain and suffering. I have been led to this correction, and sometimes I think this is done. My mind feels so clear on this. Then I see a reflection of that belief in myself or someone else, and I realize I still believe in it. How do I let go of the belief in pain and suffering?
More Help
Jesus: This is what you are doing. Do not be discouraged because you return to the belief. Simply choose again when that happens, just as you have been doing. You can see that the belief in pain and suffering, which is the same as the belief in fear, is fading for you. Even when you feel the belief strongly, you never believe in it completely. You always remember to ask for healing. It is like you are erasing a dark smudge on your mind and each time you erase some more of it. Soon you will have no darkness at all.
Because it seems you must return again and again to this belief to experience complete healing, it makes it feel more real to you, but this is not the case. Either something is true, or it is not. It cannot be more true or less true. Fear is not real. Pain is not real. Believing in it does not make it real, so resisting the truth and holding onto the belief does not make it real. Feeling a lot of pain does not make it real. Not being able to see a way out of suffering does not make it real.
All forms of fear are banished by the perfect love that is God. Open your heart, and all darkness will vanish in the brilliance of that love. The separated ones are afraid of the light. They fear they will vanish with the darkness, but that is not true. My heart opened, and I was cleansed of every form of fear, and yet, here I am, talking to you. Again, I say to you, do not be discouraged. I, too, backed away from love before my final acceptance. I am here to help you, and together we will succeed.
Thank You
Me: Thank you, Jesus, for your words of encouragement and for your help. I feel you in my mind, and it helps my faith. I heard the ego words of discouragement, doubt, and uncertainty. But I also noticed that while they pulled on an old belief in my mind, they could not hold my attention. I see signs of healing in this and in other ways.
I do suffer still when I see my son suffer, but I also know that this is another opportunity to heal the mind. And I notice that the suffering does not grip me as it used to, that I turn from it more easily and more quickly. I give my faith to You, God, and I trust that You will answer that faith. Thank you.
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