1. False healing merely makes a poor exchange of one illusion for a “nicer” one. It exchanges a dream of healing for a dream of health. Yet both are still dreams! This can occur at lower forms of prayer, combining with "forgiveness kindly meant" but not truly understood as yet, and not yet effective in truth.

So there is forgiveness-to-destroy, forgiveness kindly meant, and forgiveness-for-salvation. Off the ladder of prayer entirely is forgiveness-to-destroy; forgiveness kindly meant is on the lower rungs of the ladder, and forgiveness-for-salvation is on the higher rungs of the ladder. At the very top of the ladder, there is no need for forgiveness at all, because there is no condemnation at the top, no illusion of unforgiveness – only true healing, only union with God.

Yet only false healing can give way to fear, so sickness will be free to strike again. False healing can indeed remove a form of pain and sickness. But the cause remains, and will not lack effects. The cause is still the wish to die and overcome the Christ. And with this wish, apparently "death" (see 1. below) is a certainty, for prayer is answered. It is so important to be careful, then, what you pray for, and that means in your heart as well as with your words. Do not let a false idea go unchanged, because it may come back to confront you. Nip it in the bud. Be diligent in that. Falsity is a form of "death."

Yet there is a kind of seeming death that has a different source. It does not come because of hurtful thoughts and raging anger at the universe. Nor out of a wish to leave the chaos and turmoil, the trials and tribulations, the frustrations and disappointments, and the perceived pain and sickness of this “life.” It merely signifies that the end has come for the usefulness of body functioning. And so the body is discarded as a choice, as one gently lays aside a garment now outworn.

2. This is what "death" should be; a quiet choice, made joyfully and with a sense of peace, because the body has been kindly used to help the Son of God along the way he goes to God. We thank the body, then, for all the service it has given us. But we are thankful, too, that the need is done to walk the world of limits, reaching the Christ in hidden forms and clearly seen at most only in lovely flashes.

Once the body is of no further use, and the decision has been made by the Son of God, in conjunction with the Holy Spirit, to leave it behind and to move on, NOW you can behold Him without blinders, in the light that you have learned to look upon again.

3. You may call it "death," but it is truly liberty. It does not come in forms that seem to be thrust down in pain upon unwilling flesh, but as a gentle welcome to release. If there has been true healing, this can be the form in which a seeming death comes when it is time to rest a while from labor gladly done and gladly ended.

Now you go in peace to freer air and a gentler climate, where it is easy to see that the gifts you gave were saved for you. For Christ is clearer now; His vision is more sustained in you; His Voice, the Word of God, is more certainly your own.

4. This gentle passage to a higher prayer, a kind forgiveness of the ways of earth, can only be received with thankfulness. Yet first, true healing must have come to bless the mind with loving pardon for the sins it dreamed about and laid upon the world. Now are its dreams dispelled in quiet rest. Now forgiveness has come to heal the world and the mind is ready to depart in peace.  The lessons have been learned, and truth has subsequently been demonstrated and taught well.

5. This is not "death" according to the world, for "death" is cruel in its frightened eyes and takes the form of punishment for sin. In this form, how could it be possibly be perceived as a blessing? And how could it be welcome when it must surely be feared? No one truly welcomes that which is cruel, a punishment, or fearful! What healing could have possibly occurred in that view of "death"?

Seeming death is merely opening the gate to higher prayer and to kindly justice done. This view of "death" is a reward, not a punishment. But such a viewpoint must be fostered by a healing of which the world cannot conceive. The world is not yet ready for such a view, but you are!

There is no partial healing. What but shifts illusions has done nothing. What is false cannot even be partly true. Only truth is true. If you are healed, then your healing is complete. We have said that forgiveness is the only gift you give and would receive. And then, and only then, is healing assured.

6. False healing rests upon the body’s cure, leaving the cause of illness still unchanged, ready to strike again and again until it brings a cruel "death" in seeming victory. The world’s form of "death" can be held at bay a little while, and there can be a brief respite as it waits to take its final vengeance on the Son of God . . .

Yet "death" cannot be overcome until all faith in it has been laid by, and placed upon God’s substitute for ego dreams; a world in which there is no veil of sin to keep it dark and comfortless.  We are talking now about the happy dream of seeming death, where at last the gate of Heaven opens and God’s Son is free to enter in the home that stands ready to welcome him. It was prepared before time was, and yet still it waits for him. It is a home of light and peace and joy. It is perfect in its cause, and perfect in its effects.

Yes, brother, there is a "place," called Heaven, where there is perfection. A "place" where there is no strife, only peace. And this Is your true home, where you not only belong, but where YOU truly ARE. Look to the Holy Spirit to help you remember this home as the only home there is, the home where GOD IS. Amen.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1. The word "death," unless accompanied by a modifier (like "seeming"), is in quotations. (References: ACIM.T-19.C.i.3:3, ACIM.T-19.C.all.)