ACIM Chapter 8. VIII. The Body as Means or End, P 3-5

ACIM Chapter 8. VIII. The Body as Means or End, P 3-5

VIII. The Body as Means or End, P 3

3 It has been particularly difficult to overcome the ego’s belief in the body as an end, because it is synonymous with the belief in attack as an end. The ego has a profound investment in sickness. If you are sick, how can you object to the ego’s firm belief that you are not invulnerable? This is an appealing argument from the ego’s point of view, because it obscures the obvious attack that underlies the sickness. If you recognized this and also decided against attack, you could not give this false witness to the ego’s stand.

I have decided that sickness is a defense against God in every case. No matter what kind of sickness I am experiencing, what pain or discomfort, I know that it is the symbol of an attack thought in my mind. I still hear the ego suggest reasons for the sickness. For instance, if I have a headache, the ego mind checks the barometric pressure. It thinks about what I have eaten that might have triggered the headache. It suggests that the headache is the result of stress from dealing with a difficult person.

I have learned to ignore this chatter as entirely irrelevant. The headache is a projection of an attack thought. That is the cause every time. I have an attack thought, and I want it away from me. So, I project it outward and use it to prove I am blameless because someone or something else is to blame. A pain pill might bring me temporary relief simply because the pain pill is a magical solution I decided on, but no magical solution will heal me.

I am healed as I give up attack thoughts.

Attack thoughts are interesting, too. I attack someone I know because he caused me a problem. Possibly I will say something to him. Or I might just attack in my own thoughts, but it is the same either way. I see the attack and I recognize that I am never upset for the reason I think. I ask the Holy Spirit for clarity and eventually, I am led to the belief that I am separate from God. That is the actual attack thought, the one that sources all other attack thoughts.

There is a solution for this, It is forgiveness. I forgive the attack thoughts and eventually, forgive the idea of attack. In the Psychotherapy section of the Course, it says this:

Sickness takes many forms, and so does unforgiveness. ²The forms of one but reproduce the forms of the other, for they are the same illusion. ³So closely is one translated into the other, that a careful study of the form a sickness takes will point quite clearly to the form of unforgiveness that it represents. ⁴Yet seeing this will not effect a cure. ⁵That is achieved by only one recognition; that only forgiveness heals an unforgiveness, and only an unforgiveness can possibly give rise to sickness of any kind. (ACIM, P-2.VI.5:1-5)

That was a surprise.

I had to smile when I read that a careful study of the form a sickness takes will point quite clearly to the form of unforgiveness that it represents. I have to take off my hat to Louise Hays. She has an entire book dedicated to this idea that I was never completely sure about. I have a nerve problem that has appeared in two separate parts of my body. Now I am thinking about something I have said many times in the past. When I was bothered by someone, I would say that person gets on my nerves. Hmmm. I wonder if I still do that, or even think it.

Here is how it is working for me. I started out watching my mind for attack thoughts, and as I found one, I would use a forgiveness process to undo it and accept the Atonement in that situation. And now I have a very specific thought to watch for as I say, think or even feel like someone or something is getting on my nerves. Slowly, as more and more are undone in my mind, I begin to see the end game. I see that the real problem is the belief I am separate from God and that idea begins to unravel. As it does so, my reality is being revealed to me. I am beginning to remember what I am, and attack in any form is losing its appeal as it loses its purpose.

VIII. The Body as Means or End, P 4

4 It is hard to perceive sickness as a false witness, because you do not realize that it is entirely out of keeping with what you want. This witness, then, appears to be innocent and trustworthy because you have not seriously cross-examined him. If you had, you would not consider sickness such a strong witness on behalf of the ego’s views. A more honest statement would be that those who want the ego are predisposed to defend it. Therefore, their choice of witnesses should be suspect from the beginning. The ego does not call upon witnesses who would disagree with its case, nor does the Holy Spirit. I have said that judgment is the function of the Holy Spirit, and one He is perfectly equipped to fulfil. The ego as a judge gives anything but an impartial judgment. When the ego calls on a witness, it has already made the witness an ally.

The ego says that sickness proves I am vulnerable, and so, of course, I could not be the Son of God. But Jesus says that sickness is a false witness. What sickness really witnesses to is that I want to prove I am vulnerable and so could not be God’s Son. I am reminded that I but do this to myself, and so sickness is done by me, not to me. Also, I am reminded of Lesson 152, which tells me that no one can grieve nor fear nor think him sick unless these are the outcomes that he wants.

I will always find the witnesses I want to find.

If I want to support and uphold the ego thought system, I will find witnesses to do so. Sickness is just one of those witnesses. If I want to find witnesses to the strength and power that is mine as an extension of God, then I will find those. In fact, I find that even sickness can be a witness to my power as I see that in sickness, I have found a way to make even God’s Son appear weak and helpless. What I see and how I see it are both up to me according to which part of the mind I use as judge, ego, or Holy Spirit.

VIII. The Body as Means or End, P 5

5 It is still true that the body has no function of itself, because it is not an end. The ego, however, establishes it as an end because, as such, its true function is obscured. This is the purpose of everything the ego does. Its sole aim is to lose sight of the function of everything. A sick body does not make any sense. It could not make sense because sickness is not what the body is for. Sickness is meaningful only if the two basic premises on which the ego’s interpretation of the body rests are true; that the body is for attack, and that you are a body. Without these premises sickness is inconceivable.

Understanding that a sick body makes no sense because sickness is not what the body is for, helps me to loosen the hold the belief in sickness has on me. When my body is sick, I am reminded that this could only appear to be true if I accept the ego’s use for the body. The ego thinks the body is for attack and that I am a body.

To further simplify, I understand that attack occurs only where there is the belief in guilt. If I believe that someone is guilty, I have attacked that one. If I attack anyone, I have attacked myself, or to put it another way, if I see anyone as guilty, I have attacked myself. None of this could happen unless I thought I was a body. Only bodies attack and if I did not believe any of us were bodies, I would never see guilt.

This paragraph is very important.

Jesus is telling us that if we did not use the body to attack and if we did not believe we are bodies, then sickness would be inconceivable. I could throw away my medicine and never see another doctor if I let go of the idea that I would attack my brother or myself. To know myself as spirit and never to confuse myself with the body would ensure perfect health for the body.

The next time I feel sick or am in pain, I will remember that I must have used this body for attack. Otherwise, it would not be possible for it to be sick. The solution must be forgiveness. Actually, I know this. I rarely get sick, and when I do, I know what caused it. So, I ask for the Atonement for my mistaken belief that I am a body, and I ask for the Atonement for the belief that attack has any value at all.

And, oh, that I still get sick and that I still have attack thoughts does not make me guilty. It just makes me mistaken. It calls for forgiveness.