T-3.VI – The Divided Mind (paragraphs 1-9)

March 18, 2021

This section returns us to the map of the mind, where we have an unconscious, conscious, and superconscious.

The conscious mind was born out of the superconscious. The superconscious is where unity with God exists, it is also where revelation comes from. It produced the conscious mind. Freud got this wrong, believing that the unconscious gave birth to the conscious (8:1). The conscious mind is responding to impulses from both the unconscious and superconscious (3:2). The conscious mind does not generate the impulse but responds to it.

This is the divided mind. We operate from this place of division in our mind. “Consciousness is correctly identified as the domain of the ego” (4:3). The ego exists within the conscious mind, similar to the censor that guards the gate from both ends (superconscious and unconscious) – it is all within consciousness. Our objective is to allow the conscious mind to be directed by the miracle drive from below and the pull of God from above. The ego is like an operating system in our mind that is set to war with those miracle-impulses and inspirations. As noted in the CE footnote, this is the first reference to the ego. But it will be a major character in the thought system going forward.

Divisions in the mind were introduced at the separation, and these divisions are apparent in the world we created as well. The separation “introduced degrees, aspects, and intervals” (2:1) and these divisions are the source of all conflict. It is important to name quite specifically what he is talking about here within our human framework. We divide by religion, nationality, race and other stratifications and castes. “Wars arise when some regard others as if they were on a different level” (2:3). We are living through a time right now where we can see these points of fracture and division with clarity if we are willing to do the examination. Likewise, any conflicts in our own mind proceed from the same divisions and levels: “Intrapersonal conflict arises from the same basis as interpersonal. One part of the psyche perceives another part as on a different level and does not understand it” (6:1-2). Just as in our outer world we perceive our neighbor to be a stranger, we also make parts of our mind “strangers to each other” (6:3) by operating from this divided state of mind.

Prior to the separation there was only the realm of knowledge. The separation gave rise to perception. Perception and knowledge existing as distinct realms is a key concept in the Course thought system. Perception is the realm of wrong-mindedness and right-mindedness. Right-mindedness gives birth to miracles, whereas wrong-mindedness produces miscreation (fear). The realm of knowledge is one of spirit and one-mindedness. In the Clarification of Terms it says, “Knowledge is not the remedy for false perception since, being another level, they can never meet. The one correction possible for false perception must be true perception.” (C-3.3:1-2). This is essentially a restatement of what we are told in this current section:

“The term ‘right-mindedness’ is properly used as the correction for wrong-mindedness, and applies to the state of mind which induces accurate perception. It is miraculous because it heals misperception…” (7:3-4).

When we operate form our right mind, we are still perceiving but it will produce miracle-inspired relating. Right-mindedness is still coming from a place of uncertainty because our will is divided since separating from God. True perception is always the correction or answer to aligning our will with God’s. We’ve heard this before: “the true corrective procedure…is the proper use of the spiritual eye” (T-2.XII.5:4).

Suggested Practice:

“My real strengths are to know, to love and to create. They were given to me by God, Who created me like Himself.”