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Chapter 8: The Journey Back

Section IX: Healing as Corrected Perception

Read ACIM Chapter 8, Section IX (pages 157-159)

What does Jesus tell us is the underlying cause of sickness?

In this section we are learning that healing is the process of letting go of our belief that we could ever be separated from God’s universal Love. That is why we are reminded that the Holy Spirit is the answer. Jesus explains that the underlying cause of sickness is fear of awakening to the one Love we all are.

The ego’s world tries to teach us that sickness comes from germs, chemicals, pollen, too much sun, the wrong foods — an endless list of external forces. All these external sources of harm simply reinforce fear and make the dream of separation seem more real.

For the ego’s existence to be maintained, we must not recognize the power of our minds and that a decision in our mind to awaken would be the end of sickness. Thus the ego will always strive to make our minds seem powerless and make external forces seem to have complete control over us. The Holy Spirit teaches us this is not so. Since only oneness is real, there is nothing external, nothing separate that could cause harm.

The ego is the decision to be separate from the universal Love of God. It “...is the wish that things be as they are not.” (2:1) It is this desire to be separate that the Holy Spirit helps us undo. Because we have so strongly identified with the body and a separate image as what we are, the undoing of the decision to be separate is a gradual process. Because of this strong investment in a separate identity, we have to be taught that there is no value in being a separate identity, there is no value in being unique and special. We need to learn that our choice for specialness is an attack on our wholeness. As we cease to value separation, we will naturally make the decision for wholeness.

What happens as we learn to let go of identification with the body?

The Holy Spirit teaches that in truth we are all of one mind and that mind we share with God, which is forever whole, complete and healthy. The Holy Spirit teaches us that the body is not what we are. As we learn to let go of identification with the body, the body no longer tells us whether we are healthy or sick. We are told, “Ask, rather, that the Holy Spirit teach you the right perception of the body, for perception alone can be distorted. Only perception can be sick, because only perception can be wrong.” (1:6-7)

The Holy Spirit teaches us to perceive the body as a communication device to be helpful to ourselves and all our brothers by using it to express our unity and the Love that we are. With this perception the body becomes harmless, which is the condition of reality. Thus our minds become open to the reality of extending Love as our only purpose. Attack becomes unthinkable because there is nothing perceived as external to attack. There is no idea of separation. It is to this recognition that the Holy Spirit leads us. This is the healing or correction of our perception.

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