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September-December, 2025

The Body as Means or End

by Rev. Myron Jones, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

“It has been particularly difficult to overcome the ego’s belief in the body as an end, because it is synonymous with the belief in attack as an end. The ego has a profound investment in sickness. If you are sick, how can you object to the ego’s firm belief that you are not invulnerable? This is an appealing argument from the ego’s point of view, because it obscures the obvious attack that underlies the sickness. If you recognized this and also decided against attack, you could not give this false witness to the ego’s stand.” (T-8.VIII.3:1-5)

I have decided that sickness is a defense against God in every case. No matter what kind of sickness I am experiencing, what pain or discomfort, I know that it is the symbol of an attack thought in my mind.

I still hear the ego suggest reasons for the sickness. For instance, if I have a headache, the ego mind checks the barometric pressure. It thinks about what I have eaten that might have triggered the headache. It suggests that the headache is the result of stress from dealing with a difficult person.

I have learned to ignore this chatter as entirely irrelevant. The headache is a projection of an attack thought. That is the cause every time. I have an attack thought, and I want it away from me. So, I project it outward and use it to prove I am blameless because someone or something else is to blame. A pain pill might bring me temporary relief simply because the pain pill is a magical solution I decided on, but no magical solution will heal me.

I am healed as I give up attack thoughts. Attack thoughts are interesting, too. I attack someone I know because he caused me a problem. I might say something to him, or I might just attack in my own thoughts, but it is the same either way. I see the attack, and I recognize that I am never upset for the reason I think. I ask the Holy Spirit for clarity, and eventually, I am led to the belief that I am separate from God. That is the actual attack thought, the one that sources all other attack thoughts.

There is a solution for this: forgiveness. I forgive the attack thoughts and, eventually, forgive the idea of attack. In the Psychotherapy section of the Course, it says this:

“Sickness takes many forms, and so does unforgiveness. The forms of one but reproduce the forms of the other, for they are the same illusion. So closely is one translated into the other, that a careful study of the form a sickness takes will point quite clearly to the form of unforgiveness that it represents. Yet seeing this will not effect a cure. That is achieved by only one recognition; that only forgiveness heals an unforgiveness, and only an unforgiveness can possibly give rise to sickness of any kind.” (P-2.VI.5:1-5)

I had to smile when I read that a careful study of the form a sickness takes will point quite clearly to the form of unforgiveness that it represents. I have to take off my hat to Louise Hay. She has an entire book dedicated to this idea that I was never entirely sure about. I have a nerve problem that has appeared in two separate parts of my body. Now, I am thinking about something I have said many times in the past. When I was bothered by someone, I would say that person gets on my nerves. Hmmm. I wonder if I still do that, or even think it.

Here is how it is working for me. I started out watching my mind for attack thoughts, and as I found one, I would use a forgiveness process to undo it and accept the Atonement in that situation. And now I have a very specific thought to watch for as I say, think, or even feel like someone or something is getting on my nerves. Slowly, as more and more are undone in my mind, I begin to see the end game. I see that the real problem is the belief I am separate from God, and that idea begins to unravel. As it does so, my reality is being revealed to me. I am starting to remember what I am, and attack in any form is losing its appeal as it loses its purpose.

© 2025, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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