Library of Christ Mind Teachings
ACIM Original Edition
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To substitute is to accept instead. If you would but consider exactly
what this entails, you would perceive at once how much at variance this
is with the goal the Holy Spirit has given you and would accomplish
for you. To substitute is to choose between, renouncing one in favor
of the other. For this special purpose, one is judged more valuable and
the other is replaced by him. The relationship in which the substitution
occurred is thus fragmented and its purpose split accordingly. To
fragment is to exclude, and substitution is the strongest defense the
ego has for separation.
2 The Holy Spirit never uses substitutes. Where the ego perceives one
person as a replacement for another, the Holy Spirit sees them joined
and indivisible. He does not judge between them, knowing they are one.
Being united, they are one because they are the same. Substitution is
clearly a process in which they are perceived as different. One would
unite; the other separate. Nothing can come between what God has joined
and what the Holy Spirit sees as one. But everything seems to come
between the fragmented relationships the ego sponsors to destroy.
3 The one emotion in which substitution is impossible is love. Fear
involves substitution by definition, for it is love’s replacement. Fear
is both a fragmented and a fragmenting emotion. It seems to take many
forms, and each seems to require a different form of acting out for
satisfaction. While this appears to introduce quite variable behavior, a
far more serious effect lies in the fragmented perception from which the
behavior stems. No one is seen complete. The body is emphasized, with
special emphasis on certain parts, and used as the standard for
comparison for either acceptance or rejection of suitability for acting
out a special form of fear.
