Review of Chapter 2

March 8, 2021

Section I – The Real Meaning of Possession 

“Fear of possession is a perverted expression of the fear of the irresistible attraction of God” (1:2).  This is our defense mechanism to avoid being possessed by God. 

Four types of possession are discussed: 

1. Possession of bodies:  often sexual; we desire to possess or to be possessed.  The stereotype is that males want to possess the woman, and the woman desires to be possessed.  However, there is a spectrum within us to be both (possessing and possessed by others) which is referred to as “psychosexual confusion” (3:4). 
2. Possession of things: we possess objects to protect others from our desire to possess them.  This is the root of materialism.  Couples will often “hold together primarily because of a joint interest” in the pursuit of possessing things (5.7).  You can probably think of a few examples of marriages holding together on this premise.   
3. Possession of spirit: the term spirit is very “debased” in this usage, and so it is more volatile than the previous two fallacies (and the fourth) (20:1-2). This is a very superstitious form of possession, and less common than the previous two.  However, the problem-solution for Type 3 can be applied to the other fallacies: “No one can be ‘taken over’ unless he wills to be” (24:3).   
4.  Possession of knowledge: Obviously knowledge can be attractive.  Who wouldn’t want to be a Jeopardy champion. “The idea that knowledge will make the individual more attractive to others…is a possession fallacy” (14:2-3). 
   
    These possession fallacies are pursued to make us feel full and grandiose.  The truth is that they hide our emptiness and fear.  They are expressions of lack of love. Only God can fill the hole (or vacuum) inside of us.  This is what it means to “redefine possession correctly” (24:1).   
   
   The closing paragraphs offer great wisdom for our world situation:  
          
   “External conditions are produced by the thoughts of many, not all of who are pure in heart as of yet.  Why should you be at their mercy?” (25:3-4) 
   
   This relates to the possession discussion because we think the outside world defines us.  Pandemics, insurrections, and social upheaval all seem to hold sway over our peace of mind.  Yet they do not have to.   
   
   “You are perfectly unaffected by all expressions of lack of love.  These can be either from yourself and others, or from yourself to others, or from others to you…. Mental health is inner peace. It enables you to remain unshaken by lack of love from without, and capable, through your own miracles, of correcting the external conditions which proceed from the lack of love in others” (26:1-2, 6-7). 
   
   The importance of this last statement needs emphasis: correcting external conditions is the responsibility of the miracle worker.  It starts with having inner peace and remaining unshaken in the face of these crises. 
   
   Section II – The Cause of the Separation 

The separation was a distorted projection.  God created us and gave us all His attributes, including the will to create and project (verb) the truth. (In the next section it says, “You are afraid of God’s will because you have used your own will, which He created in the likeness of His Own, to miscreate” (III.8:1).  We used that will to project, or hurl, ourselves out of our home with God. In Heaven there was “complete need-lack” (4:2).  We were “fully created” and also “created perfectly” (5:4).  The emptiness or lack that caused the separation will later in the text be defined as the desire or need for specialness (as well as to usurp God’s power).  Here it only necessary to understand that we attempted to fill that sense of emptiness by separating.   

Four distortions are presented to fill in what happened at the separation:  

Distortion 1: What God has created can be changed by your own mind. 

Distortion 2: What is perfect can be rendered imperfect or wanting. 

Distortion 3: You can distort the creations of God, including yourself.  

Distortion 4: Since you can create yourself, the direction of your own creation is up to you. (7-10) 

All of these make up the belief that “you have the ability to usurp the power of God.” (16:1) This, Jesus tells us, is the basis of all fear.  None of this happened in reality.  It happened in a dream. God sends His light to awaken us from dreaming, and when we perceive it this world and all of separation “will no longer [be] accorded reality” (17:3).  Like Titania from Midsummer Night’s Dream, we will again be as we once were and will see as we once saw. 

Section III – The Proper Use of Denial 

Being unshaken by human error in any way is repeated (1:8) (previously mentioned in II.26:7).  This is called the proper use of denial (2:1).  “It is not used to hide anything, but it is used to correct error.  It brings all error into the light, and since error and darkness are the same, it abolishes error automatically” (2:2-3).   

This concept of using light to dispel darkness (error) is familiar to us now.   

• In Miracle Principle 22: “light, by definition, dispels darkness automatically” (22.2:2); and “darkness cannot hide” (22.4:2).  This is referred to as the escape from darkness and we should not fear it but welcome it.   
  
  “Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light” (Luke 12:3) 
• In Miracle Principle 24, this idea is repeated: “It may seem as if darkness must be dispelled before light can come in, but the truth is that darkness is dispelled by light” (24:4:4).  This is where the concept of Atonement is introduced, where we reconcile and undo what is out of accord with truth. 
• In Miracle Principle 39: “By seeing light, darkness automatically disappears” (39.1:2).  Darkness is a lack of light (39.2:1) and so the miracle dissolves error (darkness) by recognizing its falsity.  
  
  The proper use of denial is to recognize that darkness does not have unique properties but is dispelled automatically by light, just as erroneous thinking is dissolved by extending or accepting miracles.  This is why we can remain unaffected by our own misthought.  “Denial of error is a very powerful defense of truth” (10:1).  
  
  There are a few first-person statements from Jesus in this section that are worth quoting here in review:  
  
  “You can do anything I ask. I have asked you to perform miracles, and have made it very clear that these are natural, corrective, healing, and universal. There is nothing good they cannot do. But they cannot be performed in the spirit of doubt. You have asked yourself why you cannot really incorporate my words. But remember my own question before you ask yours: ‘O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?’” (3:1-6) 
  
  We can get a richer understanding of this teaching by understanding the reference: 
  
   Early in the morning, Jesus came walking toward the disciples on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”  
  
  Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” Jesus said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” 
   
  Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:25-31) 
  
  Strong winds blow in our life. They can be illness, separations, lost income, or other forms of loss. Denial is a powerful defense against being enveloped by the storm.  This is an example of proper denial – to deny the power of those external situations to halt us or set us back.  Denial becomes an act of faith. And the context from the Gospel passage of reaching out to Jesus is equally applicable to us as the next passage will show. This brings us to a second first-person Jesus quote from this section: 
  
• False projection arises out of false denial, not out of its proper use. My own role in the Atonement is one of true projection; that is, I can “project” (or extend) to you the affirmation of truth. If you project error to me (or to yourself) you are interfering with the process. My use of projection, which can also be yours, is not based on faulty denial. But it does involve the very powerful use of the denial of error. 

The miracle worker is one who accepts my kind of denial and projection, unites his own inherent abilities to deny and project with mine, and imposes them back on himself and others. This establishes the total lack of threat anywhere. Together we can then work for the real time of peace, which is eternal (11-12). 

Section IV – The Reinterpretation of Defenses 

In the last section two forms of defenses were discussed: denial and projection.  We deny error and project the truth.  These defenses were reinterpreted from how we are accustomed to using them.  We normally accept error and project falsehood.  In this section, we see several other defenses reinterpreted:   

• Withdrawal: we withdraw from the desert 
• Intellectualize: We use our right-mind to face our fear rather than “reason” them away. 
• Dissociation and detachment: we split off, or distance ourselves, from error 
• Flight: “Flight from error is perfectly appropriate” (7:2). 
• Distantiation: putting distance between yourself and error 
• Regression: restoring ourselves to our original state, rather than becoming less mature 
  
   What this section is teaching us is that, since the separation, our minds have been wired toward use of defense.  Jesus is not suggesting that we pull the wires out.  Rather he is suggesting we just re-wire our minds to use defenses differently.  We should think of this as a creative use of the mind.  This is how the Course teachings becomes incorporated into our minds (12:2).  We are encouraged to really focus on developing these habits: “The correct focus will shorten [time] immeasurably” (13:9). 
  Section V – The Atonement as Defense 
  
  Now we are told that there is one true defense that should be accepted above others.  Its as if mastering the other use of defenses is a warmup act for mastering this final one. “The Atonement is the only defense which cannot be used destructively” (1:1). 
  
   Unlike the other defenses this one was not generated by humanity and is based on the principle of love. It comes from outside this world and was “built into the space-time belief” (4:1).  The Atonement is given many definitions in this section.  It is a plan, an act (resurrection) and a device for saving time. However the entire Atonement (reconciliation with God) stands at the end of time (7:4).   
  
   To make the concept of the Atonement meaningful, we should see how it is synonymous with the resurrection, which he calls “an act of love” (1:4).  Two thousand years ago, just as now, we “cannot believe that a defense which cannot attack is the best defense” (8:4).   
  
  When we accept Atonement, not only do we protect the “inner self,” we “assume [our] natural talent of protecting others” (9:2). 
  
  Section VI – The Restoration of the Altar
  
  “The reinterpretation of defenses is essential to break open the inner light” (3:1). The chalice is brought back as symbol of our reconciliation with God (see Cameo 3, where there was discussion in the Notes of a ‘chalice list’ of others whom we teach to accept their reconciliation and forgiveness). 
  
  The body is likened to a temple.  Not because it is holy in itself, but because it is a container for holiness.  It is resplendent, though not as precious as what is contained.   
  
  Likewise, church buildings are holy because they house the inner altar, where the chalice is laid.  It is not the outside structure that is holy.  “The spiritual eye cannot see the building at all, but it perceives the altar within with perfect clarity” (5:3). 

The acceptance of Atonement is what both time and matter were made for (7:1-2).  We have free will, but we it does not change the inevitability of the achievement of Atonement.  Later we are told: “I must accept Atonement for myself and nothing more. God has already done all things that need be done (W-337.1:4-5). 

Sections VII – XII 

Beginning in Section VII, “the new emphasis [is] now on healing” (1:1).  Just as sections III to VI were cohesive around the use of defenses, sections VII to XII come together around the concepts of healing, recognizing our fear and miscreations, and the ultimate release from fear. There is a focus in these sections on physical illness, and the miracle worker healing others. 

Healing principles 

• “All healing is the release from fear” (VII.2:3).  

• The mind is “the only level of causation” (VII.5:4). 
• “All physical illness represents a belief in magic” or level confusion about the level of cause.  The body “does not have the ability to introduce actual learning errors” (VII.6:7).  
• Believing there are “material means” to heal illness, also called “noncreative agents” like surgery or medicine, is based on principles of magic.  However, when Atonement as a remedy cannot be accepted, it is okay to take a compromise approach where we give these agents healing belief (8:6).  Otherwise, an “undiluted miracle” may “precipitate panic” (VII.9:3). 
• Sometimes using these “physical healing devices” protects the healer as well.  “Those who are afraid to use the mind to heal are right in avoiding it, because the very fact that they are afraid has made them vulnerable to miscreation” (VII.14:1). 
• A patient can be healed without his right-mindedness being fully restored (VIII.1:5). 
• The healer however must have not rely on his own readiness, but “maintain a consistent trust in [Jesus’ readiness]” (VIII.2:2). 
• The Atonement must be accepted by the miracle worker for him to heal.  This is the one responsibility of those who offer healing (5:1).   The healer then is in his right-mind, even if the patient is not (VIII.4:3). 
• A mental exchange occurs between the healer and the patient: the healer’s message to the patient is that his mind is constructive and that miscreations cannot hurt them. 
• Darkness must be excavated and brought to light in the healing process.  “Corrective learning always begins with the awakening the spiritual eye and turning away from the belief in physical sight” (VIII.8:1).   This will produce discomfort, but it is only necessary to bring error to the surface where it can be released (VIII.8:9).   
• Healing is a way to offer protection to others (10:3).  You see them in a charitable light, already healed.   
  
   
  
  Correcting fear and the unwatched mind: 
• “Fear cannot be Christ-controlled, but it can be self-controlled” (IX.2:1).  Christ controls behavior and guides our thinking.  Therefore the behavior (which is at the physical level) does not matter and the thinking (which is at the mental level) does matter.  Our job is to control fear.  When we ask Jesus to control fear for us we are raising the unimportant up to the mind level.   
• Fear is a result of not allowing Jesus to guide our thinking.  
• We should not ask Jesus for help in releasing us from fear, but “we should ask for help in the conditions that brought the fear about” (IX.5:3).   
• Mind wandering is responsible for bringing fear into our mind.  The top level of our unconscious mind is filled with fear.  Because our mind is undisciplined, we let the fear arise to the conscious level.  This is what we must learn to correct.  
• Fear is the result of a behavior-will conflict where what we do and what we think are discordant, or where are behaviors are contradictory. 
• We can strengthen our minds by restating our goal of willing with Jesus not against him.  “Reliance must be place on me,” he tells us (IX.15:3). 
• Correcting fear means accepting the power of the mind.  The mind never sleeps (X.2:2).  
• Miracle workers must not leave their minds unguarded or Jesus will not be able to depend on us (X.10:3). 
• “The unwatched mind is responsible for the whole content of the unconscious which lies above the miracle level” (XI.2:1). 
• Just as behavior does not matter, neither do miracles (XI.4:2).  Jesus directs them and we merely perform them as his guidance directs.  This is a restatement of Miracle Principle 2: “Miracles in themselves do not matter; they are quite unimportant.”  
•  Fear is better understood as something we eliminate rather than control (6:4). 
• The basic conflict, a term borrowed from Freudian psychology, is defined as between two opponents: love and fear or creation and miscreation.   
• The best remedy for miscreating now in the present is to accept Atonement for our past.   
• One of the ways in which we can stop miscreating, or behaving from a fear place, is to recognize and accept our relationship with God, our Creator.  He is Cause with a capital C, we are Effect (also capitalized) (9:4).  We did not create ourselves (22:1).  This idea should bring us comfort and relief. 
• Instead of trying to control fear we are to learn to master love.  There is a strong drive to master fear, but this is another form of level confusion.  The behavior level does not matter.   
• We need to acknowledge that the separation has occurred and use the spiritual eye to “accept the error temporarily” but only to bring remedy (XII.5:4). 
• Revelation is a form of communication (directly with God) that we are trying to master (10:3).   
• Healing the separation is a long-range goal of the Sonship. It is referred to as the Last Judgement.  
• The last judgement and the Apocalypse are procedures for disowning our miscreations and accepting only what we made in love.
   
  Suggested Practice 
  
  Both miracles and fear come from my thoughts.  Today I choose miracles and reject fear.  I accept the thoughts of Christ into my mind.