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Study of Text, C 14: VII. Sharing Perception with the Holy Spirit, P 4. 5-23-17

VII. Sharing Perception with the Holy Spirit, P 4

4 Our emphasis has been on bringing what is undesirable to the desirable; what you do not want to what you do. You will realize that salvation must come to you this way, if you consider what dissociation is. Dissociation is a distorted process of thinking whereby two systems of belief which cannot coexist are both maintained. If they are brought together, their joint acceptance becomes impossible. But if one is kept in darkness from the other, their separation seems to keep them both alive and equal in their reality. Their joining thus becomes the source of fear, for if they meet, acceptance must be withdrawn from one of them. You cannot have them both, for each denies the other. Apart, this fact is lost from sight, for each in a separate place can be endowed with firm belief. Bring them together, and the fact of their complete incompatibility is instantly apparent. One will go, because the other is seen in the same place.

Journal

This paragraph is very helpful in understanding why we must look at our thoughts and bring them to the Holy Spirit. It also explains why we exist in a nearly constant state of mostly unacknowledged anxiety. We believe in two realities and these realities are in no way compatible, and yet, we try to maintain a firm belief in both. It is a wonder we can function in this insanity.

Imagine that you believe the sky is green. You also believe the sky is blue. You believe that 1+1=2, and your belief that 1+1=3 is just a firmly fixed in your mind. This is what is happening to us all the time. We believe in our Divinity, that we are love as is our Creator. We believe in our innocence and our perfection and our oneness. At the same time, we have an equally strong belief in our guilt, in fear and hatred. We believe we are limited and vulnerable. We believe in projection as defense. How can we believe in both of these pictures of our self at the same time?

We maintain the two visions through dissociation. We keep them apart. When we believe in our ego self, we keep our true self in the closet with the door firmly closed. Like most people, for most of my life dissociation was so thorough that I acknowledged my ego-self most of the time and ignored the true self. This did not obliterate my true self, but through dissociation, I kept the knowledge of my true self hidden. With A Course in Miracles, I began to acknowledge both and eventually, my true self began to take precedence in my mind.

I did this by deliberately bringing the two visions together and looking at them both. This forced me to see they were incompatible and forced me to decide between them. This is the purpose of looking at a belief and then asking the Holy Spirit for another way to see it. The other way is the vision I had ignored up until that time. When the Holy Spirit brought it out of hiding and showed it to me, I was able to see clearly that the ego choice was not ever going to make me happy. Thus the choice for truth was inevitable.

It sounds like it would be very simple and straightforward, and that I would choose the truth once and for all. But what I noticed right away is that I had given a great deal of value to the ego way of thinking. It was not always so straight-forward and not always clear, and a lot of time it was frightening to think of letting the old way go. That voice in my head kept warning me that defense was necessary, and all this talk of love and invulnerability was nonsense and was going to get me hurt. So it took awhile but now I am delighted to find the hidden false beliefs lurking around in my mind. I am happy to bring them to the truth so I can make a decision for God, which is a decision for my true self and for happiness.

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