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Manual for Teachers, III. The Function of the Teacher of God, P 1-3. 6-25-20

III. The Function of the Teacher of God
1 If the patient must change his mind in order to be healed, what does the teacher of God do? Can he change the patient’s mind for him? Certainly not. For those already willing to change their minds he has no function except to rejoice with them, for they have become teachers of God with him. He has, however, a more specific function for those who do not understand what healing is. These patients do not realize they have chosen sickness. On the contrary, they believe that sickness has chosen them. Nor are they open-minded on this point. The body tells them what to do and they obey. They have no idea how insane this concept is. If they even suspected it, they would be healed. Yet they suspect nothing. To them the separation is quite real.

2 To them God’s teachers come, to represent another choice which they had forgotten. The simple presence of a teacher of God is a reminder. His thoughts ask for the right to question what the patient has accepted as true. As God’s messengers, His teachers are the symbols of salvation. They ask the patient for forgiveness for God’s Son in his own Name. They stand for the Alternative. With God’s Word in their minds they come in benediction, not to heal the sick but to remind them of the remedy God has already given them. It is not their hands that heal. It is not their voice that speaks the Word of God. They merely give what has been given them. Very gently they call to their brothers to turn away from death. Behold, you Son of God, what life can offer you. Would you choose sickness in place of this? 

3 Not once do the advanced teachers of God consider the forms of sickness in which their brother believes. To do this is to forget that all of them have the same purpose, and therefore are not really different. They seek for God’s Voice in this brother who would so deceive himself as to believe God’s Son can suffer. And they remind him that he did not make himself, and must remain as God created him. They recognize illusions can have no effect. The truth in their minds reaches out to the truth in the minds of their brothers, so that illusions are not reinforced. They are thus brought to truth; truth is not brought to them. So are they dispelled, not by the will of another, but by the One Will with itself. And this is the function of God’s teachers; to see no will as separate from their own, nor theirs as separate from God’s.

In these three paragraphs on healing, Jesus explains the roll of the Teacher of God in facilitating the healing of his brother. In healing, the body is not involved in any way, not the patient’s body nor the healer’s body. In fact, not even words are needed. Healing is achieved mind to mind, or more accurately within the mind since there is truly no gap between our minds.

What about doctors, medicine, laying of hands, moving of energy and all forms of healing? Do they have no place in this? Jesus has said previously that special agents seem to be ministering to him, yet they but give form to his own choice. Sometimes we are unable to make that leap from sickness to health in one bound, as it would cause too much fear. I think that all these forms have nothing to do with the actual healing, but may be helpful symbols for the patient.

The actual healing itself is a beautiful process. First the teacher of God must be healed in his own mind of the idea of sickness having any value. He must be healed of the idea of degrees of sickness, and all belief that sickness has anything to do with the body. It is the absolute certainty, the complete honesty (consistency) in the teacher’s mind that is healing because it reminds, mind to mind, the patient of the truth.

My experience has been that this can be done in a moment of clarity. In that moment there is no confusion in the mind of the teacher. Perhaps this clarity will not yet be permanent, but will be greatly reinforced as she offers herself for this purpose.

My heart is touched by the gentleness of healing. The healer is a symbol of the truth, the representative of another choice; he stands for the Alternative to the confusion that exists in the patient’s mind. Jesus says that the teacher’s thoughts ask for the right to question what the patient has accepted as true. Very gently they call to their brothers to turn away from death. Words are not even necessary, the call is within the mind.

This reminds me of how the Holy Spirit works with me. He doesn’t demand or force, or impinge on my choices in any way. He remains perfectly consistent and perfectly unaffected by my illusions, and this unwavering steadfastness to truth draws me to Itself. He is my memory of God, and who can resist that memory?

The certainty of the Teacher of God shares this function as he is the memory of health, the truth in his mind lighting the way for the one who has temporarily forgotten who he is. Faith that his light will ignite the light that exists in his brother, the teacher of God is patient and waits without fear for acceptance of this gift. Isn’t it a beautiful thing to see how the attributes of God’s teachers come together in this way?

Jesus says that his teachers come, not to heal the sick, but as a benediction. Of course! His teacher’s do not believe in sickness! What is there to heal? As they remain unaffected by the appearance of sickness they are not reinforcing illusion, but are strengthening the truth in their brother’s mind. “And this is the function of God’s teachers; to see no will as separate from their own, nor theirs as separate from God’s.”

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The god of Sickness

“You can give up the god of sickness for your brothers; in fact, you would have to do so if you give him up for yourself. For if you see the god of sickness anywhere, you have accepted him. And if you accept him you will bow down and worship him, because he was made as God’s replacement. He is the belief that you can choose which god is real.”

This is so clear! Ok, where in my life do I have the opportunity to give up the God of sickness for my brothers? When I think about my dear friend being depressed and an addict, I am worshipping the god of sickness and increasing my belief in it and this affects us all, including my friend. This is my motivation for releasing this worry.

I see that it is the belief in the god of sickness and I would give it up. So when I notice worry thoughts about my friend, I remember that this is not what I want to keep in my mind and not what I want to reinforce within our shared mind. I ask the Holy Spirit to show me another way to see this.

This works in all cases such as it did when I had a temporary cash-flow problem. Here is what I wrote at that time.
When I was worried about my financial situation, I recognized this as just another sick thought no different than the thought that the body could suffer. Both stemmed from the belief in lack and loss. I knew immediately that I did not have any use for the belief in lack and that I would be helping all of us if I released that thought. When I let it go, I had an inspiration about things I could do in the world to correct the situation. The correction required faith and patience but I can do faith and patience.

Correcting the symbol, that is the loss of money, was the effect of correcting the belief that manifested as the financial problem. It is important to remember that there really is only one problem and one solution. That solution when applied and accepted not only frees the mind to hear the inspiration that corrects the symbol of loss, but it helps to heal the mind of that belief so that another symbol does not so easily rise to take its place. These are just two examples but it is the same for all idols that I make to take the place of Universal Love.

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To Heal Is to Remember God. 6-21-20

T-12.II.1. Miracles are merely the translation of denial into truth. 2 If to love oneself is to heal oneself, those who are sick do not love themselves. 3 Therefore, they are asking for the love that would heal them, but which they are denying to themselves. 4 If they knew the truth about themselves they could not be sick. 5 The task of the miracle worker thus becomes to deny the denial of truth. 6 The sick must heal themselves, for the truth is in them. 7 Yet having obscured it, the light in another mind must shine into theirs because that light is theirs.

T-12.II.2. The light in them shines as brightly regardless of the density of the fog that obscures it. 2 If you give no power to the fog to obscure the light, it has none. 3 For it has power only if the Son of God gives power to it. 4 He must himself withdraw that power, remembering that all power is of God. 5 You can remember this for all the Sonship. 6 Do not allow your brother not to remember, for his forgetfulness is yours. 7 But your remembering is his, for God cannot be remembered alone. 8 This is what you have forgotten. 9 To perceive the healing of your brother as the healing of yourself is thus the way to remember God. 10 For you forgot your brothers with Him, and God’s Answer to your forgetting is but the way to remember.

Paragraph 1 tells me that sickness is a lack of love, that if we knew who we were we could not be sick. “The task of the miracle worker thus becomes to deny the denial of truth.” So if my son is sick in mind or body and I believe in his sickness and worry about him and try to fix him, I am reinforcing his error that he is not loveable/ is not love.

But if I refuse to believe in his sickness and only believe in his real Self, then I help him heal himself. And yes, the one who is sick must heal himself because he has the truth in him, but if that truth is obscured to him, then our task is to shine a light into their mind. And here is something that is very important: Jesus says that it works because that light is theirs. So, the light in my mind is the light in their mind. The light I shine is the certainty of who we are.

The second paragraph talks about the fog in our mind. The reason we need light is that the light has been obscured. The fog that obscures that light is simply wrong-minded thinking. It is ego beliefs that leave us lost and confused. Sometimes when I forget the truth, it does feel exactly like I am trying to see through a heavy fog.

But the light (the truth) penetrates the fog without regard to how dense it might seem because the fog has no power unless we give it power. We must withdraw that power remembering that God has all power, is all power. Our job is to remember this for all the Sonship. So, if my son expresses his concern that he is looking for a job in a depressed job market and I believe he has a valid point, then we are both looking at the situation through the fog of ego thinking.

The more we believe that idea, the stronger it becomes in our minds and in everyone’s mind throughout the Sonship. However, if I remember who we are as the Sons of God, I lessen any power that thought has for both of us and for all of the Sonship. Jesus says, “Do not allow your brother not to remember, for his forgetfulness is yours.”

If I then tell him that the job market is not relevant to him and that there are always positions that need filling and that his talents will be recognized and valued, this is one way of shining a light that obscures the fog for him. Saying the words is not necessary, but sometimes helpful. There may be different words for different people and different circumstances and the Holy Spirit will provide them if they are needed.

The reason that words are not necessarily needed is this: But your remembering is his, for God cannot be remembered alone. I remember the truth, that is, I remember God and our place in God, and the truth (God) is strengthened in him. Jesus says this is what we have forgotten. It is all-important that we remember it now. How we think, what we believe, reverberates throughout the Sonship. We together forgot God and now we together remember Him.

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Manual for Teachers, Shift in Perception. P 4 6-20-20

II. The Shift in Perception, P 4

4 With this idea is pain forever gone. But with this idea goes also all confusion about creation. Does not this follow of necessity? Place cause and effect in their true sequence in one respect, and the learning will generalize and transform the world. The transfer value of one true idea has no end or limit. The final outcome of this lesson is the remembrance of God. What do guilt and sickness, pain, disaster and all suffering mean now? Having no purpose, they are gone. And with them also go all the effects they seemed to cause. Cause and effect but replicate creation. Seen in their proper perspective, without distortion and without fear, they re-establish Heaven.

Accepting that all of manifestation begins in the mind will change everything. It requires the undoing of the belief in guilt or else we would be unwilling to take full responsibility for all things in our life. But once done, Jesus tells us that there will be an end to suffering because these untrue thoughts will have no purpose. I can see that in my own life, not as a complete accomplishment but enough for it to feel miraculous and enough to strengthen the desire to look for and release any remaining thoughts that lead to suffering.

I absolutely take responsibility for everything in life. I take responsibility for all things that occur in my personal life and all things that occur in life itself. I started with the behaviors and reactions in my life story that caused harm. In the beginning, I did what everyone does, I blamed others. Slowly, as I was able, I began taking responsibility, acknowledging that nothing could occur without my desire for it to do so. (Lesson 152) And at some point, I began looking for root cause so that I could find the hidden desires that were the cause of many of these decisions. Having found them, I forgave them and released them to the Holy Spirit.

I also began to realize that anything in my awareness was there so that I could heal it through the same process. It was no longer personal, just something to be healed for us all. I realized that it doesn’t matter where in the Sonship something is healed because we all benefit from the healing. I also realized that I played a part in those seemingly not personal experiences such as weather events, earthquakes, wars. I began to look in my own mind for the causes, the desire for chaos and for conflict. Additionally, there is the reality that much of what happens here is the result of the combined consciousness. However it shows up, the cause is in the mind and the effects are what we see and experience through our bodies and not the other way around.

Seen in their proper perspective, without distortion and without fear, they re-establish Heaven.
Without guilt distorting everything, we can all look within for the cause of the world we see, accept responsibility, and allow the mind to be healed. The world we will experience once this is completed will be lovely, indeed. I am interested in the idea that we will re-establish Heaven. I think he probably means that first there will be the real world, a world without our projections of fear and guilt, a world that reflects only love. Then, the world will disappear entirely and we will merge into God. Maybe that is what he means by re-establishing Heaven. It will be re-established in our Mind.

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Suffering

Suffering
I am always aware that any distress on my part is caused by my thoughts about the situation or person. There is never an exception to this. The ego questions this and relies on physical pain to prove the point. But even physical pain is not proof against this fact.

When I am in pain, for instance, when I put my inured foot down wrong or too hard and I feel pain in it, if I am thinking that it shouldn’t be happening or what does it mean and what will happen because of it, I suffer. But if I just feel the pain and have no thoughts about it, the pain comes and goes and I don’t suffer, I just feel pain.

The other day, I had a really bad headache and this hardly ever happens anymore. I was surprised by it and wondered what caused it and why now? But then, I got on with my day and stopped thinking about it and I was fine. The next day the headache was gone and I wondered briefly what that was all about but then I let the thoughts go. Without thoughts, there is no suffering. This is an amazing discovery, really.

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Manual for Teachers, Shift in Perception. P 3 6-18-20

II. The Shift in Perception, P 3
3 What is the single requisite for this shift in perception? It is simply this; the recognition that sickness is of the mind, and has nothing to do with the body. What does this recognition “cost”? It costs the whole world you see, for the world will never again appear to rule the mind. For with this recognition is responsibility placed where it belongs; not with the world, but on him who looks on the world and sees it as it is not. He looks on what he chooses to see. No more and no less. The world does nothing to him. He only thought it did. Nor does he do anything to the world, because he was mistaken about what it is. Herein is the release from guilt and sickness both, for they are one. Yet to accept this release, the insignificance of the body must be an acceptable idea.

Healing is a shift in perception. When I chose healing, I changed my mind about what I thought was possible. My perception up to that moment was that my body responded to environmental conditions. Pollen, grass, most trees, molds, and a long list of foods would cause my body to have an allergic reaction. I decided that, although I didn’t know how it could happen, I was willing to be free of this belief. I asked the Holy Spirit to help me. And I became willing to let Him.

This was not a total reversal in my thinking. It was like putting my toes in the water to see what happened. But what happened changed my mind in a way that affected the rest of my life. From that point on I became more willing to realize that my mind is what needs healing, not my body, and not my circumstances. It is taking a good deal of time for me to accept the full implication.

I have had many experiences since then that helped me to accept that the world never rules the mind and that it is always the other way around. It took even more time for me to accept no compromise in the recognition that I am completely responsible for my life. Every time I noticed I was resisting this fact I turned my attention to the Holy Spirit for correction. This gentle process of mindfulness combined with willingness peeled away the layers of illusion that I used to keep the separation idea in place.

Soon, instead of trying to figure out what is wrong with my body, and what in the world caused it, I was reminding myself that I am experiencing illness because I have chosen it, and I am keeping this illness because I see some value in having it. Having established the source of the problem, I asked the Holy Spirit to heal my mind, believing the body would likely follow.

In the Text, Jesus reminds us that guilt and sickness are the same things. Sickness is the outward manifestation of the guilt that I am holding in my mind. It doesn’t matter if I think I am guilty or if I think the other person is guilty as it is the same belief and creates the same effects. As I am allowing the Holy Spirit to heal my mind, I am becoming more willing to look at the buried guilt. I am learning that I have not actually done anything, but only dreamed I did. I have nothing to feel guilty for.

So, what we have discovered about sickness so far is this.

We value sickness for what it can give us.
Decisions are of the mind, not of the body. If sickness is but a faulty problem-solving approach, it is a decision.
Because sickness is a decision of the mind, we decide if we will keep the sickness or let it go. We can use outside agents to give form to the decision for healing but, as we are ready, we can also decide that we have no use for the sickness and let it go.

To accept this release, the insignificance of the body must be an acceptable idea.
Could it be so hard to accept that the body is insignificant? It would seem so. It took me many years to do this. First, there is the belief that the body is who I was. I don’t know if this is still taught in the Catholic Church of if other churches teach it in one form or another, but when I was in Catholic school, we were told that cremation was a sin and that if the body was cremated, we would have no body in Heaven. My goodness, talk about making the body significant! If I believe I am the body, I will be reluctant to accept its insignificance. Perhaps this is one reason Jesus places such an emphasis on the fact that we are not the body.

Later, I decided that I am spirit occupying a body and that when I died, I would be set free from the body. But that was an error as well. This belief leaves me prisoner to the body and gives the body significance in this way. But Jesus tells us that we are not a body and are not in a body. My next step was to accept that I am spirit and I am pretending to be a body. I was much closer now because I was seeing my nature as being separate from the body.

Now, I see the body as a manifestation of a belief that I want to experience as if it is real. It is just energy condensed into form and I am interacting with that energetic object. Another way to say this is that the body is a thought-form projected outward from my mind in such a way that I can have an experience of being in the form. It is a mind game and I am the gaming master.

Being the maker of the experience of sickness and the maker of the experience of not sickness is a relatively new idea for me. I think that it began to jell for me in 2012, but I had to take this slow, letting my mind adjust to this idea. I had many extraordinary experiences with healing but for a long time, they remained isolated incidents.

Now that I am no longer attached to the idea of the body as real and important, and now that I no longer believe in guilt, I am ready for the next logical step. I am ready to merely rise up and say, “I have no use for this.” I wonder if this will be simple or if I will have to struggle against the ego resistance. We will see.

PS: Well, now it is a few years later and it seems that this is a process as well. I have a few small but problematic body issues and I am working with Jesus to understand what they are for so that I can change my mind. I thought this would be easy and it turns out that I’m wrong about that. I’m not worried about it, though. All things come to those who wait and as a teacher of God, I have learned patience and trust. I am curious about this but not concerned about it.

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Focusing on the Error

The following is something I wrote about while doing 920: Being a Miracle Worker

How is the perception of focusing on the errors of another holding me back?

I don’t do that very often anymore. However, sometimes I worry about my child’s behavior and for the length of time I do that, I am holding myself back from being a true miracle worker. I can’t believe in their errors and be a conduit for miracles at the same time. Believing in their errors is my error and needs to be healed before I can be helpful.

My daughter just sent a text. The news announced that the governor would be making a big announcement at 4:00. Susan is experiencing a sense of dread. She is very afraid of the virus and thinks the governor will loosen the rules too much. I want to tell her not to waste her time being afraid but that won’t make sense to her and will just increase her fear.

So, what I am doing instead, is to love her. I love her like God loves her. He adores her just as she imagines she is. Her fear fantasies do not change His love for her any more than her fantasies change her reality. So I just keep adoring her, too. Her fear fantasies don’t concern God because He knows who she is, so they don’t concern me either. I know who she is. This is the way I shift my worries and concerns so that I no longer focus on the error. I just love instead.

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