T-2.VII – The Miracle as the Means of Healing
February 24, 2021
This topic of this section is healing. By healing we should think of both self-healing and also the extension of healing to others. In Miracle Principle 12, it states “miracles are the effects of thought.” That means the manifested expression of love in this world results from the mind. Any healing that occurs as a result of the expression of love is not a miracle, rather the healing is the result.
Thought > causes > miracles > causes > healing
We often think of the healing as the miracle. Imagine, for example, if you were a 1st century witness to Bartimaeus, who was blind, having his sight restored after Jesus healed him (Mark 10:46-52). Upon realizing what was accomplished, you would be inclined to say, “It’s a miracle!” Yet according to the Course:
Healing is not a miracle. The Atonement, or the final miracle, is purely a means, while any type of healing is a result. Atonement is the remedy. The degree of error to which it is applied is irrelevant. Essentially, all healing is the release from fear (1:4-2:3).
This means the miracle was the forgiveness that was extended to Bartimaeus. That was the expression that caused the physical healing. A more appropriate response would be, “Look, it’s a miracle…Bartimaeus is without any spot of sin! Oh, and now he can also see!”
Of course, how could any of us not respond with elation and amazement at witnessing healing such as this! The point is that Jesus wants us to understand the mechanics for how this works.
‘A Course in Miracles’ is a spiritual tradition that offers a very potent form of healing of both mind and body. There are stories of miraculous healing in our community of believers, I do not want to suggest otherwise. Yet, most of the ones I hear do not relate to healing being deliberately and methodically extended from a giver to a receiver with the goal of healing predetermined. This tradition of healing is off to a very slow start for us and has not become a regularity among the faithful. How often have you heard of a patient visiting a Course healer and being healed?
“I have been hinting throughout that you must heal others. The reason is that their healing merely witnesses to yours…Illness, which is really ‘not-right-mindedness,’ is the result of level confusion in the sense that it always entails the belief that what is amiss in one level can adversely affect another” (2:6-7, 3:2).
We need to read this carefully. It says that we mistakenly believe that the body can be affected by the mind. This is a mistake, the body is “merely a fact.” Illness, and other forms of misbehavior, occurs in the body, or is acted out in the body, but the correction is never at the body level. Correction to our misthought will, however, result in the physical illness going away. The belief that made illness witness to misthought (guilt, sin) is no longer believed in. The mind is the only level of causation (5:4). Spirit has been created. The body is a learning device for the mind (6:2-3). When we accept correction in the mind, we can go in peace, for our faith has made us well.
It can be believed either that the mind can miscreate in the body or that the body can miscreate in the mind. If it can be made clear that the mind, which is the only level of causation, cannot generate effects beyond itself, then neither confusion need occur (5:3-4).
This position that the body is neutral, is “merely a fact,” does not mean that we deny its existence. This is stated explicitly (7). Paragraph 8 provides a view on the use of “noncreative agents” to heal the body. By this, he means surgery or medicine. These agents are not at all necessary and it is an error to believe they are necessary.
“It does not follow, however, that the application of these very weak corrective devices is evil. Sometimes the illness has sufficiently great a hold over an individual’s mind to render him inaccessible to Atonement. In this case, one may be wise to utilize a compromise approach to mind and body, in which something from the outside is temporarily given healing belief” (8:4).
This idea of noncreative agents only being given belief by our mind is consistent throughout the Course. Consider, for example, this passage from the Workbook:
You really think a small round pellet or some fluid pushed into your veins through a sharpened needle will ward off death…It is insanity that thinks these things. You call them laws…These are not laws but madness. The body is endangered by the mind that hurts itself (W-76.3:3-5:1).
I am reminded of the famous story Ram Dass told of his Indian mystic teacher, Neem Karoli Baba, ingesting large quantities of LSD, on two occasions. Seemingly, he did so for no other reason than to demonstrate to Ram Dass that a mind fixed on God is not affected by these substances. Ram Dass was, of course, bewildered by the demonstration. His teacher was demonstrating that the “law of medicine” we hold as true and fixed, is not a true law at all. They are merely “forms of ‘spells’” (13:2). It also explains why tumors disappear, sight is restored, spines are straightened, depression and anxiety is healed, with or without outside agents.
I recommend reviewing Footnote 93 to understand the mechanics of belief that often occur in those who are ill. Often, those who are ill believe they have damaged their mind. Thus, the ailment in the body serves to mask the real defilement of their mind. This person then fears healing of the body, because then the unhealed mind is fully exposed. This is another example of the mind being precipitated into panic (9:3). As healers, then, it is important to remain aware that healing must only occur in the mind, never should it be directed to the body or the spirit where healing is “inapplicable” (11:3).
The closing paragraphs (13 and 14) explain that the use of noncreative agents, such as medicine or even therapy, is not only an adaptation technique for the receiver of healing but also the giver. Jesus explains it is safer and far wiser for a healer who is still experiencing fear in his own ability to facilitate healing to rely on these agents while they are still working out their own confusion on the true Source of healing. This theme, along with many other themes on healing discussed in this section, will be drawn out in later sections of the Text, Workbook, Manual and both supplements. The Course clearly has in mind a mode of healing that is uniquely characterized by its teaching and the faith that develops from incorporating these words and learning to rely on God. It will be further explored in tomorrow’s section.
Suggested Practice
Healing is the release from fear. Today, I accept Atonement for myself and let my mind be healed.