ACIM Chapter 2. V. A. Special Principles of Miracle Workers P 12 (2). A clear distinction between what is created and what is made is essential.
ACIM A. Special Principles of Miracle Workers P 12
A. Special Principles of Miracle Workers P 12
12 (2) A clear distinction between what is created and what is made is essential. All forms of healing rest on this fundamental correction in level perception.
What is made? All things I see with my eyes are made. If it is discernable to the body, it is made. All things that change and that die are made. If it is eternal and unchanging, then it is created. Love is creation. The ego mind cannot conceive of this. It appears to the ego as if I am saying that nothing exists. The ego doesn’t believe in anything it cannot sense through the body. All things that shift and change are valued by the body. So, to the ego mind, the idea of letting go of the belief in what is made feels dangerous. It feels like annihilation since the ego itself is not eternal.
As I am beginning to wake up, I am allowing my perception to be corrected. This is not as easy as it sounds. I spent years just getting to the place where I understood that special relationships are not actually love, and I am still in the process of allowing all of the many forms of specialness to be purified. It felt very frightening at first, and it is still an obstinate belief I find hard to completely release. Initially, it felt like I was being asked to let go of love. But eventually, I realized that letting go of the belief in what I thought was love made room for what is actually love.
I Am Not My Body
I have also been working on changing my perception of the body. This is not any easier because I have mistakenly become identified with the body. This, too, this belief that I am my body, is a stubbornly persistent belief. I have done the lessons. I said that “I am not a body, I am free.” And I have said it many times and practiced it in many ways, yet I have not believed it. Not entirely. Now I am ready to look more closely at this belief in body, and I am ready to be healed.
Undoing Layers of Belief
This is what it feels like. It appears as if Jesus invites me to look at a layer of belief and to see that this is not true. It might take me months of looking at it, as he shows me this belief is false in many ways. Finally, I know this belief is not true, and it is as if the layer is peeled away. Then I get another invitation, and I look at another belief that makes the body seem real.
I looked at pain through Lesson 190. I practiced it for months, using the pain I was in as many opportunities to practice the idea that pain could not be true because it is not of God. Eventually, my belief began to shift, and I was able to experience this shift in form. Pain that had been pretty intense simply disappeared with no help from any magical solutions.
I did not change my circumstances. And I did not find relief from medical intervention. I just began to believe that pain could not possibly be real, and I did this by asking the Holy Spirit to heal my mind of this impossible belief. I saw many small but irrefutable proofs as I went through this process.
Magical Problems and Magical Solutions
You would think after all that I would never experience pain again, but I do. Now, however, I absolutely know that I am doing this to myself, and I ask that my mind be healed of any belief that it could be caused by something else. I know I did this, not through anything happening in the world, but through my thoughts and beliefs, and I ask the Holy Spirit to undo what I did. How long will it take before I stop doing this to myself? As long as it takes.
As mentioned before, Jesus invited me to work with some of my magical solutions. I slowly weaned myself off of sleep aides and pain pills so that I could see that these are magical solutions to magical problems. The problems were magical because they helped me believe the world is real. The solutions were magical because they helped reinforce the belief in unreal problems.
He is helping me to let go of another layer of belief in the unbelievable. I am learning that the body does not create pain and insomnia. This happens in the mind, and by not reaching for the magical solution right away, I am allowing my mind to be healed of this belief.
Sometimes I will still take the medications, but even if I do, I realize that it is not the medication that makes the difference but my belief in the medication that does the job. How very strange it feels to me now to take those medicines. It is almost a joke I play on myself, and sometimes I laugh when I do it. So, I know that the mind is being healed. Another layer is being peeled back.
Again, it Is the Mind as Cause
Here is something interesting that happened. A smoker sat near me, and I had an old reaction. My eyes began to burn and itch, and I wished I had some Visine AC to stop that feeling. It was so irritating that I decided to buy some. As I was driving to the store, I was given the thought that it was not the cigarette smoke that caused the itching. As I accepted that thought, more was revealed.
I saw that as the smoke had drifted to me, I had judged the smoker and felt resentment. I had used this situation to project my unconscious guilt onto her. When I realized that nothing outside me caused the problem but the thoughts in my mind that once again made the physical discomfort, the itching stopped. Changing the mind can be like a runner going full out and suddenly stopping. She does not just stop on a dime but perhaps skids to a stop.
I let the realization that once again I had done this to myself roll around in my mind for a while. I considered that maybe I was wrong and it would start again if I didn’t buy the Visine. This is the ego mind arguing for its way. It wants to defend against the world and is adamant about that. I bought the Visine, but by the time I got home, I knew I didn’t need it. It has never been opened.
Twisting Reality
I see very clearly through these practices that it is essential I understand that there is a difference between what is made and what is created. Anything that is made, the body for instance, has no creative ability. The body cannot make pain, disease, or discomfort, and since none of those things are creations, they are not real either.
The body nor the effects I experience in the body are real. They cannot be real because they are not part of creation. They are the effects of a mind that has distorted reality to suit its purpose. Since the effects are unreal, I can only be affected by them if I choose to identify with them. This is why Jesus tells us that we are not the body and not in a body. The Christ in you inhabits not a body. ²Yet He is in you. ³And thus it must be that you are not within a body. (ACIM, T-25.in.1:1-3)
As I accept the Atonement, I am letting go of my perverse desire to twist reality into something unrecognizable. I am starting to see this healed perspective reflected in my world. That I appear to be in a body in the world is not a sin, and I am not guilty of it. It simply is not true. The body is only a device that allowed me to pretend to be something I am not. And now, as I disidentify with it as me, I am using it to show me what needs to be undone. In this way, my mind is being healed. I am returning my awareness to creation rather than this illusion.
To find some helpful teachings by Regina Dawn Akers, CLICK HERE.