Chapter 2 Section III The Proper Use of Denial

February 16, 2021

Section I taught us that we use denial as a “pseudo-correction” for the harm the distortion of our fear of the irresistible attraction for God could cause. We distort this attraction to various ways of possessing or being possessed by other bodies, things, spirit, or knowledge. This induces fear of the harm these wishes could cause and so we deny their power by making them inefficient through causing failures in their efficacy. This shows up in behaviours such as compulsive gambling that eventually bankrupt the one who is distorting the attraction for God to attraction for things. This sets the stage for mental illness in the form of ritualistic, compulsive, neurotic and/or psychotic behaviours we think will magically protect us and others. We saw how this played out in Helen’s inability to remember names.

Denial in this form is the improper use of it. It is improper because it is used to deny the truth, the irresistible attraction to God and the attributes of His creation. It is because we have endowed all of our thoughts, the ones we hold in error and the ones that are true, with equal power that we believe that we can be hurt. We have again confused levels and endowed God given attributes to the physical order. We are afraid that what we believe is true has the power to hurt us.

Even if we are mistaken about our beliefs, they seem real because “you believe what you value.” (1:3) We believe that we can be harmed by this irresistible attraction to God because of our mistaken belief that He did harm us or at least caused us to suffer due to our error in the use of knowledge (see section II) We believe that we were banished from Heaven and now are condemned to eternal pain. Jesus tells us that we need to realize that any trauma we have experienced is because of our own errors in belief. Just because it seems like this is what happened we have not made the right connections in the past and so we will not do so now. He uses the example of a child falling down the stairs at the moment an adult has her arms open in welcome. The child associates the fall with this adult and retains a fear of her, even though the two things had nothing to do with each other. The child’s perception is in error.

In our creation we became part of God and He part of us. “They (God and His creations) are completely dependent on each other. They are symbiotically related.” (5:3,2) Because of the natural symbiotic relationship between God and ourselves, like the child, we have associated the presence of God with the error in our belief. Somehow this has caused us to distort this relationship into one of being possessed.

This idea shows up in “cannibalism in connection with the Sacrament (of eating the wafer, as Host, in the Sacrament of Communion) [as] a distorted view of sharing.” (4:1) We have distorted the idea that we share everything with God into an act of possession through physical means.

What this symbiosis means though is that His peace is within us. In our creation we received His peace as it is in Him. “This peace is totally incapable of being shaken by human errors of any kind. It denies the ability of anything which is not of God to affect you in any way” (1:7-8)

Acceptance of God’s peace is the proper use of denial. This use of denial does not hide anything. It is used to correct mistakes. This use of denial brings error to light. Just as light dispels darkness, the proper use of denial dispels error. This, we are told, is a very powerful protective device—it does not conceal it only corrects. It is by using this corrective device that we let go of our doubt and give way to our “natural, corrective, healing, and universal ability” (3:2) to perform miracles.

In order to be able to use denial properly we need to accept that “whenever [we] are afraid, [we] are deceived.” We have allowed ourselves to be deceived by lies and we are allowing our minds to serve what is false instead of our soul, or spirit. We have not allowed “the daily bread” of the peace of God to feed us. We want to properly use denial so that we can accept only mercy from God and then “[our] own words should always reflect only mercy, because that is what [we] have received and that is what [we] should give.” (7:2) This proper use of denial allows our minds to serve our souls and re-establishes our freewill.

If we expect Jesus to behave in a judgmental condemning way toward us or if we offer that to ourselves, we are only interfering with the process of correcting the error. If we choose to accept Jesus’ kind of denial and projection, we will unite our inherited abilities of creation with his in order to correct our errors in thinking. “The Son, because of his own likeness to his Creator, is creative. No child of God is capable of losing this ability, because it is inherent in what he is.” (T-2.II.5:6-7) This means that we will use denial properly to correct the error of thinking we usurped God’s position, not hide or conceal it, and return to the truth that what God created cannot be changed and that there is a total lack of threat anywhere. “Together we can then work for the real time of peace, which is eternal.” (12:3)

An Exercise:

Any time you are aware of fear today, and fear can be a number of feelings that are not the peace of God, take a moment and think about the proper use of denial. Remind yourself this fear signifies that you are allowing yourself to be deceived and you want to deny this as the truth. You may want to ask Jesus to unite with you in using his kind of denial and projection to establish the total lack of threat anywhere.

Suggested Practice:

I will to use denial properly today and work with Jesus for the real time of peace, which is eternal.