8. HOW CAN PERCEPTION OF ORDER OF DIFFICULTIES BE AVOIDED? P 5
5 There can be no order of difficulty in healing merely because all sickness is illusion. Is it harder to dispel the belief of the insane in a larger hallucination as opposed to a smaller one? Will he agree more quickly to the unreality of a louder voice he hears than to that of a softer one? Will he dismiss more easily a whispered demand to kill than a shout? And do the number of pitchforks the devils he sees carrying affect their credibility in his perception? His mind has categorized them all as real, and so they are all real to him. When he realizes they are all illusions they will disappear. And so it is with healing. The properties of illusions which seem to make them different are really irrelevant, for their properties are as illusory as they are.
Journal
This makes so much sense. An illusion is an illusion regardless of the form it takes and so healing is simply choosing to disregard the appearance of the illusion and to insist on the truth being made manifest. Maybe, like this: There is no headache, just the appearance of a headache, which I am not interested in. There is only Love and Love doesn’t hurt. Love is joyful and peaceful and that is all that is really going on right now and all I care to have in my awareness.
So if it is so simple and so easy, why does healing often feel so hard? Why is pain so persistent? I have let go of the belief in a number of different pains and after I worked my way through the first one, just being vigilant and persistent in what I knew must be true, the rest have been a lot easier. But, sometimes, I can’t do it. Why is that?
Jesus assures us that the illusion is the effect of a belief and one hallucination is as easy to deny as the next. What is the problem, then? I know it is not that I still believe that I “catch” sickness or I react to my environment in painful ways, or even that my DNA caused it. My mind just doesn’t go there anymore, not with any degree of conviction, anyway. I know that the only thing that can cause sickness are my beliefs. So, just change my beliefs, right? Easy-peasy!
Only sometimes it is not so easy. One thing I noticed is that I do believe that some hallucinations are harder to dispel or maybe it is just that I still identify with the body to such a degree that I can’t quite believe that the pain is not there, that the pain is actually in my mind as a belief in pain. For instance, I can almost always dismiss headaches and small burns and cuts. The pain fades and the injury heals easily. But when the pain is severe, I become afraid and my fear drives me rather than my holy mind.
Another thing I notice is that sometimes I still value the sickness. I think the sickness has something to offer me. It provides me with proof that I am loved and cared for as my family expresses sympathy and offers to help. I have had to discuss this ridiculous notion with the Holy Spirit more than once, along with the idea that being sick is the only way to get any rest, another value sickness holds. When I catch myself doing these things, I laugh it off and get on with things.
A harder one to catch though is the belief I am guilty and guilt calls for punishment. Simply put, I might still believe that sickness and pain can act as self-inflicted punishment that wards off even harsher punishment from God. Could I still believe that?? Surely, not. But, I think that unconsciously, I use pain and sickness as a defense against God. It keeps the story going and my personal self will intact. Sigh.
Nothing is happening with this story and this body right now, nothing at all. It is just an ancient memory playing over and over in my mind. There is no sickness or pain-filled body. There is just the memory of one. What I can do and what I am supposed to do is to recognize that this is true. I am remembering something that only appeared to happen eons ago.
Now, I can stop participating in this seemingly endless groundhog day by refusing to believe in it. When I have the opportunity to choose to believe in the sickness or the pain, I turn from the illusion and ask the Holy Spirit to heal my mind of all these forms of sick thinking, and, very likely, the body will follow suit. Even if it doesn’t, I am lessening the burden of the belief in sickness from the collective mind every time I make that decision.
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