Cameo 11 – “Notes on Sex”
February 4, 2021
This essay starts with a question of great importance: How good was Helen’s hearing? Helen was taking down material on sex that was not at all vague. Clear statements about sex being useful only to procreate, sex as the behavior of a misdirected will. All of a sudden, the Course moves from light reading about working miracles and being in God’s everlasting arms to a very stark stance on sexual behavior. ‘Who would want to follow this strict interpretation?’ Helen and Bill must be asking themselves. Sex is so tied to shame, hidden attractions, and vulnerability, that Helen must have heard these words as a declaration from God, “Thou shalt not have sex!”
According to the notes, this is precisely the situation. Helen told Bill that she doubted the accuracy of the “commentary on sex.” She realized her doubt was based on the idea that Jesus was suggesting sex be taken from her:
“It just occurred to me that the doubt may come from something I don’t want to give up.”
To go back to the question: How good was Helen’s hearing? Was this material Jesus or Helen’s biases? There is another essay (Cameo 19) that addresses this very question in detail (“The Editing of the Notes”). There, Robert Perry makes a strong case that Helen was being clearly communicated with by a distinct Voice with its own unadulterated thoughts. Unlike other channelers, Helen was not filtering communication through her own thought formulation, and selecting words that best represented the thought. The words were chosen for her by the Voice. It is a quite different process than was presented by Esther Hicks, Jane Roberts, Lee Carroll, Paul Selig, or other well known channelers. (It is relevant to note that Jesus also describes himself as coming from a different place than all the other entities in the above examples. He was no longer climbing the ladder, he is a “completely true witness for God.”)
The greatest value I see in this essay is that it brings home the point that the notes are true. Course students need to resolve this question because the material itself is pointed and clearly pronounced. If we accept this, then we need to determine what this means for us. Think for a moment about how sex is represented in our larger culture? It is not always the healthiest and most mature position you see, how sex drives are depicted in movies, social media. It is quite often a selfish affair. There are a lot of “body-image distortions.”
There is also a lot of shame and guilt, which is most obviously depicted in the reaction you see toward LGBTQ brothers and sisters. We see violence and double standards applied to, or experienced by them, based only by their sexual identity or expression. It is important for us to understand that Jesus is not shaming or guilting us over sex. He wants us to understand what is appropriate and what is inappropriate expressions. We will see this in Principle 48 where he teaches us a way to transform a sexual impulse into a miracle impulse. He knows we will form relationships (at least at some point along our journey) and he knows we will develop intimacy. He wants to be brought into how we experience this, and the role it serves us.
This brings us back to Helen’s question about “not wanting to give something up” What if she does not want to lose the sexual impulse? Is Jesus trying to take it from her (or us)? Doesn’t he have some other important place to be other than our bedroom!? These were the questions facing Course students since 2000 when these notes became public. And it should come as no surprise that many students said that Helen heard wrongly. That the notes must be distorted by her psyche. Robert Perry’s key takeaway is that Helen was not distorting the message. The words are Jesus’ not hers. Jesus never corrected the notes, whereas other areas of the dictation that required editing, he did so, as evidenced by Helen’s notes.
Reflection:
Page 1753 lists five key parallels of the notes on sex in Chapter 1 with areas of the later Text. Review them now, they are listed below. And as you review them, make it personal by thinking about how you have viewed or experienced sex or been taught to think about sex before and after you started your spiritual journey. When you adopted the spiritual life as a goal, did your view on sex change? If so, did it change into something reflective of these five points? Or is this teaching asking you to pivot?
Also consider how our society views and experiences sex. Recall our conversation last week about reversing the physical order (Principle 9). Is Jesus asking for any reversals in your thinking or understanding?
- The early teaching that sexual pleasure “is not truly pleasurable in itself ” (T-1.46.6:2) is mirrored by the Course’s later teaching that physical pleasure is ultimately painful, for it identifies us with the body (see T-27.VII.1:4-5).
- The early teaching that in sex we view another as a “sex object” (T-1.46.6:5) is mirrored in the later criticism that in romantic relationships we view others as mindless bodies (T-15.VII.8:2-3).
- The early teaching that sex is not for achieving closeness (“You have misunderstood sex, because you regard it as a way of establishing human contact for yourself”—T-1.18.4:3) is mirrored in the later teaching that sexual union does not establish real closeness (T-15.VIII.2:1).
- The early teaching that sexual attraction itself must be undone (“The underlying mechanism must be uprooted”—T-1.43.6:5) is mirrored in the later idea that we must get beyond attraction to bodies: “When the body ceases to attract you…” (T-15.IX.7:1).
- Finally, the practical instructions for dealing with sexual attraction and fantasy are strikingly similar in both the early dictation and the later Course. In Chapter 1 of the Text (T-1.46.7 and T-1.48.13), we are told that “in a situation where” you “experience inappropriate sex impulses,” you should “invite me [Jesus] to enter,” and then he will “replace it [the sexual attraction] with love.” In Chapters 16 (T-16.VI.12) and 17 (T-17.III.13), we are told that “Whenever your thoughts wander to a special relationship which still attracts you,” you should allow Jesus to “enter” and “step between you and your fantasies,” and then the Holy Spirit will “release you” from your sexual attraction.*
*Italics all direct quote of Complete and Annotated Edition, p. 1753.
Practice Suggestion:
I invite Jesus to enter in to all my relationships, turning my impulses and attractions in the direction of love.