ACIM Chapter 12. III. The Investment in Reality, 8-10

III. The Investment in Reality, P 8

8 I said before that God so loved the world that He gave it to His only begotten Son. God does love the real world, and those who perceive its reality cannot see the world of death. For death is not of the real world, in which everything reflects the eternal. God gave you the real world in exchange for the one you made out of your split mind, and which is the symbol of death. For if you could really separate yourself from the Mind of God you would die.

The world we made is a projection from the split mind. As Jesus has been explaining to us, it is a reflection of our untrue thoughts. It is representative of the ego thought system. Though we are conflicted about it, we hate the thought system that opposes our reality and so frightens us. We project it outward in a failed attempt to get rid of it. This is the world we see and think of as reality. We then pretend the problem is out there and we suffer eons of time in useless attempts to fix it.

The real world is a gift from God.

It comes from our true nature, our Self as created by God. There is no conflict, no separation, no suffering and no death. Instead, there is only beauty, love and peace. There is only unity. There is only a reflection of God. We will experience the real world. Can you imagine it?

No one will ever consider doing anything unkind to another because they will know there is no “other,” only another part of the one Son. No one will be sick, no one will lack for anything, there will be nothing to fear, and guilt will be unheard of. Nor will anyone get old and die. It will be a world of form and so not reality, but it will be a beautiful reflection of love in form.

III. The Investment in Reality, P 9

9 The world you perceive is a world of separation. Perhaps you are willing to accept even death to deny your Father. Yet He would not have it so, and so it is not so. You still cannot will against Him, and that is why you have no control over the world you made. It is not a world of will because it is governed by the desire to be unlike God, and this desire is not will. The world you made is therefore totally chaotic, governed by arbitrary and senseless “laws,” and without meaning of any kind. For it is made out of what you do not want, projected from your mind because you are afraid of it. Yet this world is only in the mind of its maker, along with his real salvation. Do not believe it is outside of yourself, for only by recognizing where it is will you gain control over it. For you do have control over your mind, since the mind is the mechanism of decision.

As long as I keep insisting that the world exists outside my mind, I will have no control over it.

I can save money and invest wisely and still wind up broke. I can exercise and eat right and take excellent care of myself and still get sick and die. And I can raise my children right and give them all the love and care I can, and they can still make bad decisions and bring suffering into their lives. I have no control over a world that exists outside my mind.

When I realize that nothing exists outside my mind, I regain control because I do have control of my mind. I control my mind through making different decisions. The world I see in my mind was sourced through decisions to imagine myself as separate from God and so to be unlike my self. That gave me an interesting and often awful experience, and now I am ready to change my mind and remember who I really am.

I can do this because while I have this chaotic world in my mind.

I also have the means for salvation in my mind. It is there for me to choose anytime I want to.  I began making this choice for salvation slowly, one situation, one problem, one thought at a time. I allowed the contrast in the effects of my choices to convince me this is what I want. And I continued this process until it became a habit and until it became my one goal.

I can still forget that the story is the projection of the thoughts in my mind and that both cause and effect remain in my mind. I can become entranced by the story and believe in it. Then, the anxiety of knowing that something is wrong grows in me until I snap out of it and remember that all this is only happening in my mind. I am hallucinating. I am dreaming. But in choosing to become aware of my holiness, I am saved from my dreams, and I am waking up.

There is no world, no “out there” for me to see. There are no eyes that actually see because there is no body. Hey, Mulder, the truth is not out there. It’s in here. Ha ha.

III. The Investment in Reality, P 10

10 If you will recognize that all the attack you perceive is in your own mind and nowhere else, you will at last have placed its source, and where it begins it must end. For in this same place also lies salvation. The altar of God where Christ abideth is there. You have defiled the altar, but not the world. Yet Christ has placed the Atonement on the altar for you. Bring your perceptions of the world to this altar, for it is the altar to truth. There you will see your vision changed, and there you will learn to see truly. From this place, where God and His Son dwell in peace and where you are welcome, you will look out in peace and behold the world truly. Yet to find the place, you must relinquish your investment in the world as you project it, allowing the Holy Spirit to extend the real world to you from the altar of God.

Normally, I don’t have any trouble recognizing where the attack originated. Sometimes, though, I get confused and think that I am being attacked by someone or something outside myself. I overhear someone criticizing something I did, and maybe I will think that this person is my enemy. Maybe I will think I need to do something about this. Or maybe I should work harder, do or say something that sways their opinion of me.

Eventually, hopefully soon, I will come to my senses.

All perception of attack is in my own mind and nowhere else. I take these dark thoughts and these dark feelings to the altar and lay them there so the light of truth can do what light does to darkness. The ego tugs at my coattail, trying to pull me back into the story. This time, it says, I cannot afford to overlook this attack. Look, it says, at how real it is. Hear it, it says, with your own ears. Everything, it says, depends on a perfect defense.

I will watch my mind for attack thoughts today with more vigilance than ever before because today, I am more interested in being invested in reality than in defending against the imagined enemies I have projected. I quickly and gladly place these perceptions on the altar and surrender them to the Holy Spirit in absolute confidence that He will dispel them and extend the real world to me.

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