1. Healing must occur in exact proportion to which the valuelessness 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 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-solving 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,” “feelings,” “reflexes” and the like represent attempts to endow the body with non-mental motivators. Actually, such terms merely state or describe the problem. They do not answer it.

2. 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 (doctors, etc.) 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 that 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.

3. What is the single requisite for this shift in perception? It is simply this; the recognition that sickness is of the mind, and has nothing to do with the body. What does this recognition “cost”? It costs the whole world you see, for the world will never again appear to rule the mind. For with this recognition responsibility is 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.

4. With this idea pain is forever gone. But with this idea goes also all confusion about creation. Does this not 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 lesson 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 reestablish Heaven.

Notes:

“The body can act wrongly only when it is responding to misthought. The body cannot create and the belief that it can, a fundamental error, produces all physical symptoms.” (T-2.IV.2:5-6) It may not seem like the mind has made the decision for sickness. After all, no sane mind would wish an illness upon itself. Sickness is inconvenient at best, and “life-threatening” or results in “death” at worst. Sickness can be very costly, time-consuming, worrisome and/or fearful – even to the extreme. So why, then, would so many people choose sickness for any purpose whatsoever?

Usually, sickness is chosen as valuable for a purpose that is not in the conscious mind. Perhaps when you were a child a relative was sick. When you asked him why he was sick, he might have said to you, “When you are sick, you find out who really loves you.” “Idle” statements have their effects.

Now you may not remember in your conscious mind that this verbal interchange occurred. But the subconscious mind does remember. And this may therefore be when the decision for sickness was made. And in fact, it may have been made so quickly, and with so little fanfare, that you forgot you made this decision the instant that you made it. Yet it was made. The “misthought” took hold, the sickness was decided upon and summarily effected. It appeared as if it was “the flu” or “a bug” that made you sick, but it was not either of those, or any of the myriad maladies that circulate the globe. It was the misthought, and only the misthought, that was the perpetrator.

Once the sickness has been chosen, there are many other people that now come into the act. Doctors, nurses, care givers, concerned relatives and the like begin to appear on the scene. All are there simply to give form to the decision for sickness, and to make it appear as if it were really true. Yet all this is part of the illusion, the part that gives the decision for sickness the appearance of normalcy and respect. Yet it all merely perpetuates the illusion. There is no healing going on here at all. It cannot be so, as it is the mind that made the decision. And it is in the mind that the healing must occur. Yet for all that, the appearance of the reality of the sickness seems very real.

When the person begins to realize that the sickness is not real, that it is simply a decision the mind made in a moment of “lapse,” then and only then can the person begin to see the reality of the situation, and can begin to change his mind about his decision for sickness. That is when the real healing begins. When the mind is corrected, and the decision for sickness is withdrawn and the decision for healing takes its place, the person is relieved from the effects of the erroneous decision he has made. Simultaneously the mind is released from the guilt that is associated with making the decision in the first place. Freedom from the guilt and the sickness is the inevitable result, and the inevitable release for both. Accepting this release is the key to healing, and the key to the return of happiness to the Son of God, as he sees what he has not seen before. That the world did not do this to him; he did it to himself. That the world is not the victimizer and he the victim. It was all done by his misperception of the truth of what he is, and Who his Father is. He is not a body. The body is not real. It is insignificant except as a messenger for the Holy Spirit of the TRUTH. And the truth is that sickness is not real. How could any malady of the body be real, when the body itself is not real?

As he heals, he accepts that the body is to be given to the Holy Spirit for His purpose, and not for any purpose for which his ego has devised. His mind is healed now, and the symptoms of the body’s ailments have disappeared. He has risen above the idea of sickness into the idea of healing. Now the truth can truly set him free to see the world differently, to see it in a new light, the light of Christ. Now he is healed and happy and whole. Now he can teach this truth to others and help them to see the light as well. He is a disciple of the truth, and is blessed and a blessing thereby. Now he and his brothers can move forward into the higher realms of truth and enlightenment, undeterred by the body and illnesses. These but serve to block the truth, and this is no longer of interest to the healed Son of God. He is no longer afraid to know who he is, and Who his Creator is. He is no longer in the dark, and he welcomes the light in all areas of his life. For the transfer value of knowing the truth in one area, is invaluable to knowing the truth in other areas as well. Like dominoes lined up to fall in sequence, the light that shines in one area extends to all areas, and his healing becomes complete. When the light comes, all darkness must disappear forever.

Now he can take his place beside Jesus in the Atonement, and help his brothers see what he has seen. Now he can help his brothers choose more wisely than he did at the beginning, when sickness appeared to offer him something that he thought he wanted. He realizes now that sickness offers nothing but more sickness. Like begets like. Leaving sickness far behind him, he walks with God and talks with God and abides in Him. Heaven is no longer beyond his reach; it is his HOME.

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

5. HOW IS HEALING ACCOMPLISHED?

II. THE SHIFT IN PERCEPTION

RECAP

1. Healing must occur in exact proportion to which the valuelessness of sickness is recognized. Does it then follow, that sickness appears to occur in proportion to the value sickness is accorded?

2. Even if the sickness is a faulty problem-solving approach, it is still a decision and can be changed for an idea that will dissipate the problem, not disguise or amplify it. That idea would be HEALING. Sickness is a mask the Son of God wears to disguise his oneness with the Father. Healing shows open-mindedness, truth and love; the decision for Oneness with God.

3. The body is NOT the decision maker. It is the mind that makes decisions. The sickness does not just “come upon you.” It is asked for in error as “cause,” and received as “effect.” Cause and effect but replicate creation. Sickness is miscreation. Seen in their proper perspective, without distortion and without fear, cause and effect reestablish Heaven. Separation as the cause produces sickness as the effect. Healing as the cause produces Oneness as the effect.

4. 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. The mind of the patient himself is the physician. (Many people go to the doctor to substantiate the choice for sickness; others go to the doctor to effect a change of mind for healing. The doctor just gives form to the choice of the patient.)

5. These “special agents” (doctors, etc.) are not needed per se at all. The patient can merely rise up and say “I have no use for this” and he is healed. The single requisite for this shift in perception is the recognition that sickness is of the mind, not the body. The insignificance of the body must be an acceptable idea.

6. Once the decision for healing is made, the world will never again appear to rule the mind. The Son of God will recognize that what he ascribed to the world, to outer forces, was actually his own choice. As difficult as that may appear to accept, the world merely reflects the mind’s thoughts. If you do not like what you see – change your mind’s thoughts to those you share with God. THEN take another look at the world!

7. Guilt, sickness, pain, disaster and all suffering have no purpose in creation; only in separation. Yet separation is not our goal; GOD IS.