18 When you are afraid of
anything, you are acknowledging its power to hurt you. Remember that where your heart is, there is your treasure also. This means that you believe in what you
value. If you are afraid, you are
valuing wrongly. Human understanding will inevitably value wrongly and, by endowing all human thoughts with equal power, will inevitably
destroy peace. That is why the Bible speaks of "the peace of God which
passeth (human) understanding."
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.
19 This is the
proper use of denial. It is not used to
hide anything but to
correct error. It brings
all error into the light, and since error and darkness are the same, it corrects error automatically. True denial is a powerful protective device. You can and should deny any belief that error can hurt you. This kind of denial is not a concealment device but a correction device. The "right mind" of the mentally healthy
depends on it. You can do
anything I ask. I have asked you to perform miracles and have made it clear that miracles are
natural, corrective, healing, and universal. There is nothing good they cannot do, but they cannot be performed in the spirit of doubt.
20 God and the Souls He created are
completely dependent on each other. The creation of the Soul has already been perfectly accomplished, but the creation
by Souls has not. God created Souls so He could depend on them
because He created them perfectly. He gave them His peace so they could not be shaken and would be unable to be deceived. Whenever you are afraid, you
are deceived. Your mind is
not serving the Soul. This literally starves the Soul by denying its daily bread. God offers
only mercy.
Your words should reflect only mercy because that is what you have received, and that is what you should
give.
21 Justice is a temporary expedient or an attempt to teach man the meaning of mercy. Its judgmental side arises only because man is capable of
injustice if that is what his mind creates. 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. What you do
not realize is that the mind can miscreate
only when it is
not free. An imprisoned mind is not free by definition. It is possessed or held back by
itself. Its will is therefore limited and is not free to assert itself. The real meaning of "are of one kind," which was mentioned before, is "are of one mind or will." When the will of the Sonship and the Father are one, their perfect accord
is Heaven.
22 Denial of error is a powerful defense of truth. You will note that we have been shifting the emphasis from the negative to the positive use of denial. As we have already stated, denial is not a purely negative device; it results in positive miscreation. That is the way the mentally ill
do employ it. But remember a very early thought of your own—"Never underestimate the power of denial." In the service of the "right mind," the denial of
error frees the mind and reestablishes the freedom of the will. When the will is
really free, it
cannot miscreate because it recognizes
only truth.
23 False projection arises out of false denial,
not out of its proper use. My own role in the Atonement is one of
true projection; I can project 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. It
does involve, however, the very powerful use of the denial of errors. 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.
24 The improper use of defenses is quite widely recognized, but their proper use had not been sufficiently understood as yet. They can
indeed create man's perception both of himself and of the world. They can distort or correct depending on what you use them
for.
25 Denial should be directed only to error, and projection should be reserved only for truth. You should truly give as you have truly received. The Golden Rule can work effectively only on this basis.
26 Intellectualization is a term which stems from the mind-brain confusion. "Right-mindedness" is the device which defends the
right mind and gives it control over the body. "Intellectualization" implies a split, while "right-mindedness" involves healing.
27 Withdrawal is properly employed in the service of withdrawing from the meaningless. It is
not a device for escape, but for consolidation. There
is only One Mind.
28 Dissociation is quite similar. You
should split off or dissociate yourself from error but only in defense of integration.
29 Detachment is essentially a weaker form of dissociation.
30 Flight can be undertaken in whatever direction you choose, but note that the concept itself implies flight
from something. Flight from error is perfectly appropriate.
31 Distantiation can be properly used as a way of putting distance between yourself and what you
should fly from.
32 Regression is an effort to return to your own original state. It can thus be utilized to
restore, rather than to go back to the
less mature.
33 Sublimation should be a redirection of effort to the sublime.
34 There are many other so-called "dynamic" concepts which are profound errors due essentially to the misuse of defenses. Among them is the concept of different levels of aspiration, which actually result from level confusion. However, the main point to be understood from this section is that you can defend truth as well as error and, in fact, much better.
35 The means are easier to clarify after the value of the goal itself is firmly established. Everyone defends his own treasure. You do not have to tell him to do so because he will do it automatically. The real questions still remain.
What do you treasure, and
how much do you treasure it? Once you have learned to consider these two questions and to bring them into
all your actions as the true criteria for behavior, I will have little difficulty in clarifying the means. You have not learned to be consistent about this as yet. I have therefore concentrated on showing you that the means
are available whenever you
ask. You can, however, save a lot of time if you do not extend this step unduly. The correct focus will shorten it immeasurably.
