Library of Christ Mind Teachings
ACIM Original Edition
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38 [The Soul knows, loves, and creates. These are its unequivocal
functions.] The abilities man now possesses are only shadows of his real
strengths. All of his functions are equivocal and open to question or
doubt. This is because he is not certain how he will use them. He is
therefore incapable of knowledge, being uncertain. He is also incapable
of knowledge, because he can perceive lovelessly. He cannot create
surely, because his perception deceives [and illusions are not pure].
Perception did not exist until the separation had introduced degrees,
aspects, and intervals. The Soul has no levels, and all conflict arises
from the concept of levels. [Wars arise where some regard others as if
they were on a different level. All interpersonal conflicts arise from
this fallacy.] Only the levels of the Trinity are capable of unity. The
levels which man created by the separation cannot but conflict. This is
because they are essentially meaningless to each other.
39 Freud realized this perfectly and that is why he conceived the
different levels in his view of the psyche as forever irreconcilable.
They were conflict-prone by definition, because they wanted different
things and obeyed different principles. In our picture of the psyche,
there is an unconscious level which properly consists only of the
miracle ability and which should be under my direction. There is also a
conscious level, which perceives or is aware of impulses from both the
unconscious and the superconscious. Consciousness is thus the level of
perception but not of knowledge. Again, to perceive is not to know.
40 Consciousness was the first split that man introduced into himself.
He became a perceiver rather than a creator in the true sense.
Consciousness is correctly identified as the domain of the ego. The ego
is a man-made attempt to perceive himself as he wished to be rather than
as he is. This is an example of the created-creator confusion we have
spoken of before. Yet man can only know himself as he is because that is
all he can be sure of. Everything else is open to question.
41 The ego is the questioning compartment in the post-separation psyche
which man created for himself. It is capable of asking valid questions
but not of perceiving valid answers because these are cognitive and
cannot be perceived. The endless speculation about the meaning of mind
has led to considerable confusion because the mind is confused. Only
One-Mindedness is without confusion. A separated or divided mind must be
confused; it is uncertain by definition. It has to be in conflict
because it is out of accord with itself.
42 Intrapersonal conflict arises from the same basis as interpersonal
conflict. One part of the psyche perceives another part as on a
different level and does not understand it. This makes the parts
strangers to each other, without recognition. This is the essence of the
fear-prone condition in which attack is always possible. Man has every
reason to feel afraid as he perceives himself. This is why he cannot
escape from fear until he knows that he did not and could not create
himself. He can never make his misperceptions valid. His creation is
beyond his own error, and that is why he must eventually choose to heal
the separation.
43 Right-mindedness is not to be confused with the knowing mind, because
it is applicable only to right perception. You can be right-minded or
wrong-minded, and even this is subject to degrees, a fact which clearly
demonstrates a lack of association with knowledge. 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,
and this is indeed a miracle in view of how man perceives himself.
44 Perception always involves some misuse of will, because it involves
the mind in areas of uncertainty. The mind is very active because it has
will-power. When it willed the separation, it willed to perceive. Until
then, it willed only to know. Afterwards it willed ambiguously, and the
only way out of ambiguity is clear perception. The mind returns to its
proper function only when it wills to know. This places it in the Soul’s
service, where perception is meaningless. The superconscious is the
level of the mind which wills this.
45 The mind chose to divide itself when it willed to create both its own
levels and the ability to perceive, but it could not entirely separate
itself from the Soul because it is from the Soul that it derives its
whole power to create. Even in miscreation will is affirming its Source
or it would merely cease to be. This is impossible because it is part of
the Soul which God created and which is therefore eternal.
46 The ability to perceive made the body possible because you must
perceive something and with something. This is why perception involves
an exchange or translation, which knowledge does not need. The
interpretive function of perception, actually a distorted form of
creation, then permitted man to interpret the body as himself, which,
though depressing, was an attempt to escape from the conflict he had
induced. The superconscious, which knows, could not be reconciled with
this loss of power because it is incapable of darkness. This is why it
became almost inaccessible to the mind and entirely inaccessible to the
body.
47 Thereafter, the superconscious was perceived as a threat, because
light does abolish darkness merely by establishing the fact that it is
not there. The truth will always overcome error in this sense. This is
not an active process of destruction at all. We have already emphasized
that knowledge does not do anything. It can be perceived as an attacker,
but it cannot attack. What man perceives as its attack is merely his own
vague recognition of the fact that it can always be remembered, never
having been destroyed.
48 God and the Souls He created remain in surety, and therefore know
that no miscreation exists. Truth cannot deal with unwilling error
because it does not will to be blocked out. I was a man who remembered
the Soul and its knowledge, and as a man I did not attempt to counteract
error with knowledge so much as to correct error from the bottom up. I
demonstrated both the powerlessness of the body and the power of the
mind. By uniting my will with that of my Creator, I naturally remembered
the Soul and its own real purpose.
49 I cannot unite your will with God’s for you, but I can erase all
misperceptions from your mind if you will bring it under my guidance.
Only your misperceptions stand in your own way. Without them your choice
is certain. Sane perception induces sane choosing. The Atonement was an
act based on true perception. I cannot choose for you, but I can help
you make your own right choice. “Many are called, but few are chosen”
should read, “All are called, but few choose to listen. Therefore, they
do not choose right.”
50 The “chosen ones” are merely those who choose right sooner. This is
the real meaning of the celestial speed-up. Strong wills can do this
now, and you will find rest for your Souls. God knows you only in peace,
and this is your reality.