A Course In Miracles (Please purchase the published edition & foreign 
translations from Foundation for Inner Peace) )

Text

Workbook

Manual for Teachers

 

INTRODUCTION

T-in.1. This is a course in miracles. 2 It is a required course. 3 Only the time 
you take it is voluntary. 4 Free will does not mean that you can establish the 
curriculum. 5 It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given 
time. 6 The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is 
beyond what can be taught. 7 It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the 
awareness of love's presence, which is your natural inheritance. 8 The opposite 
of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.

T-in.2. This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way:




2 Nothing real can be threatened.

3 Nothing unreal exists.




4 Herein lies the peace of God.






Chapter 1.

THE MEANING OF MIRACLES

I. Principles of Miracles

T-1.I.1. There is no order of difficulty in miracles. 2 One is not "harder" or 
"bigger" than another. 3 They are all the same. 4 All expressions of love are 
maximal.

T-1.I.2. Miracles as such do not matter. 2 The only thing that matters is their 
Source, which is far beyond evaluation.

T-1.I.3. Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. 2 The real miracle is 
the love that inspires them. 3 In this sense everything that comes from love is 
a miracle.

T-1.I.4. All miracles mean life, and God is the Giver of life. 2 His Voice will 
direct you very specifically. 3 You will be told all you need to know.

T-1.I.5. Miracles are habits, and should be involuntary. 2 They should not be 
under conscious control. 3 Consciously selected miracles can be misguided.

T-1.I.6. Miracles are natural. 2 When they do not occur something has gone 
wrong.

T-1.I.7. Miracles are everyone's right, but purification is necessary first.

T-1.I.8. Miracles are healing because they supply a lack; they are performed by 
those who temporarily have more for those who temporarily have less.

T-1.I.9. Miracles are a kind of exchange. 2 Like all expressions of love, which 
are always miraculous in the true sense, the exchange reverses the physical 
laws. 3 They bring more love both to the giver <and> the receiver.

T-1.I.10. The use of miracles as spectacles to induce belief is a 
misunderstanding of their purpose.

T-1.I.11. Prayer is the medium of miracles. 2 It is a means of communication of 
the created with the Creator. 3 Through prayer love is received, and through 
miracles love is expressed.

T-1.I.12. Miracles are thoughts. 2 Thoughts can represent the lower or bodily 
level of experience, or the higher or spiritual level of experience. 3 One makes 
the physical, and the other creates the spiritual. p3

T-1.I.13. Miracles are both beginnings and endings, and so they alter the 
temporal order. 2 They are always affirmations of rebirth, which seem to go back 
but really go forward. 3 They undo the past in the present, and thus release the 
future.

T-1.I.14. Miracles bear witness to truth. 2 They are convincing because they 
arise from conviction. 3 Without conviction they deteriorate into magic, which 
is mindless and therefore destructive; or rather, the uncreative use of mind.

T-1.I.15. Each day should be devoted to miracles. 2 The purpose of time is to 
enable you to learn how to use time constructively. 3 It is thus a teaching 
device and a means to an end. 4 Time will cease when it is no longer useful in 
facilitating learning.

T-1.I.16. Miracles are teaching devices for demonstrating it is as blessed to 
give as to receive. 2 They simultaneously increase the strength of the giver and 
supply strength to the receiver.

T-1.I.17. Miracles transcend the body. 2 They are sudden shifts into 
invisibility, away from the bodily level. 3 That is why they heal.

T-1.I.18. A miracle is a service. 2 It is the maximal service you can render to 
another. 3 It is a way of loving your neighbor as yourself. 4 You recognize your 
own and your neighbor's worth simultaneously.

T-1.I.19. Miracles make minds one in God. 2 They depend on cooperation because 
the Sonship is the sum of all that God created. 3 Miracles therefore reflect the 
laws of eternity, not of time.

T-1.I.20. Miracles reawaken the awareness that the spirit, not the body, is the 
altar of truth. 2 This is the recognition that leads to the healing power of the 
miracle.

T-1.I.21. Miracles are natural signs of forgiveness. 2 Through miracles you 
accept God's forgiveness by extending it to others.

T-1.I.22. Miracles are associated with fear only because of the belief that 
darkness can hide. 2 You believe that what your physical eyes cannot see does 
not exist. 3 This leads to a denial of spiritual sight.

T-1.I.23. Miracles rearrange perception and place all levels in true 
perspective. 2 This is healing because sickness comes from confusing the levels.

T-1.I.24. Miracles enable you to heal the sick and raise the dead because you 
made sickness and death yourself, and can therefore abolish both. 2 <You> are a 
miracle, capable of creating in the likeness of your Creator. 3 Everything else 
is your own nightmare, and does not exist. 4 Only the creations of light are 
real.

T-1.I.25. Miracles are part of an interlocking chain of forgiveness which, when 
completed, is the Atonement. 2 Atonement works all the time and in all the 
dimensions of time. p4

T-1.I.26. Miracles represent freedom from fear. 2 "Atoning" means "undoing." 3 
The undoing of fear is an essential part of the Atonement value of miracles.

T-1.I.27. A miracle is a universal blessing from God through me to all my 
brothers. 2 It is the privilege of the forgiven to forgive.

T-1.I.28. Miracles are a way of earning release from fear. 2 Revelation induces 
a state in which fear has already been abolished. 3 Miracles are thus a means 
and revelation is an end.

T-1.I.29. Miracles praise God through you. 2 They praise Him by honoring His 
creations, affirming their perfection. 3 They heal because they deny body-
identification and affirm spirit-identification.

T-1.I.30. By recognizing spirit, miracles adjust the levels of perception and 
show them in proper alignment. 2 This places spirit at the center, where it can 
communicate directly.

T-1.I.31. Miracles should inspire gratitude, not awe. 2 You should thank God for 
what you really are. 3 The children of God are holy and the miracle honors their 
holiness, which can be hidden but never lost.

T-1.I.32. I inspire all miracles, which are really intercessions. 2 They 
intercede for your holiness and make your perceptions holy. 3 By placing you 
beyond the physical laws they raise you into the sphere of celestial order. 4 In 
this order you <are> perfect.

T-1.I.33. Miracles honor you because you are lovable. 2 They dispel illusions 
about yourself and perceive the light in you. 3 They thus atone for your errors 
by freeing you from your nightmares. 4 By releasing your mind from the 
imprisonment of your illusions, they restore your sanity.

T-1.I.34. Miracles restore the mind to its fullness. 2 By atoning for lack they 
establish perfect protection. 3 The spirit's strength leaves no room for 
intrusions.

T-1.I.35. Miracles are expressions of love, but they may not always have 
observable effects.

T-1.I.36. Miracles are examples of right thinking, aligning your perceptions 
with truth as God created it.

T-1.I.37. A miracle is a correction introduced into false thinking by me. 2 It 
acts as a catalyst, breaking up erroneous perception and reorganizing it 
properly. 3 This places you under the Atonement principle, where perception is 
healed. 4 Until this has occurred, knowledge of the Divine Order is impossible.

T-1.I.38. The Holy Spirit is the mechanism of miracles. 2 He recognizes both 
God's creations and your illusions. p5 3 He separates the true from the false by 
His ability to perceive totally rather than selectively.

T-1.I.39. The miracle dissolves error because the Holy Spirit identifies error 
as false or unreal. 2 This is the same as saying that by perceiving light, 
darkness automatically disappears.

T-1.I.40. The miracle acknowledges everyone as your brother and mine. 2 It is a 
way of perceiving the universal mark of God.

T-1.I.41. Wholeness is the perceptual content of miracles. 2 They thus correct, 
or atone for, the faulty perception of lack.

T-1.I.42. A major contribution of miracles is their strength in releasing you 
from your false sense of isolation, deprivation and lack.

T-1.I.43. Miracles arise from a miraculous state of mind, or a state of miracle-
readiness.

T-1.I.44. The miracle is an expression of an inner awareness of Christ and the 
acceptance of His Atonement.

T-1.I.45. A miracle is never lost. 2 It may touch many people you have not even 
met, and produce undreamed of changes in situations of which you are not even 
aware.

T-1.I.46. The Holy Spirit is the highest communication medium. 2 Miracles do not 
involve this type of communication, because they are <temporary> communication 
devices. 3 When you return to your original form of communication with God by 
direct revelation, the need for miracles is over.

T-1.I.47. The miracle is a learning device that lessens the need for time. 2 It 
establishes an out-of-pattern time interval not under the usual laws of time. 3 
In this sense it is timeless.

T-1.I.48. The miracle is the only device at your immediate disposal for 
controlling time. 2 Only revelation transcends it, having nothing to do with 
time at all.

T-1.I.49. The miracle makes no distinction among degrees of misperception. 2 It 
is a device for perception correction, effective quite apart from either the 
degree or the direction of the error. 3 This is its true indiscriminateness.

T-1.I.50. The miracle compares what you have made with creation, accepting what 
is in accord with it as true, and rejecting what is out of accord as false. p6




II. Revelation, Time and Miracles

T-1.II.1. Revelation induces complete but temporary suspension of doubt and 
fear. 2 It reflects the original form of communication between God and His 
creations, involving the extremely personal sense of creation sometimes sought 
in physical relationships. 3 Physical closeness cannot achieve it. 4 Miracles, 
however, are genuinely interpersonal, and result in true closeness to others. 5 
Revelation unites you directly with God. 6 Miracles unite you directly with your 
brother. 7 Neither emanates from consciousness, but both are experienced there. 
8 Consciousness is the state that induces action, though it does not inspire it. 
9 You are free to believe what you choose, and what you do attests to what you 
believe.

T-1.II.2. Revelation is intensely personal and cannot be meaningfully 
translated. 2 That is why any attempt to describe it in words is impossible. 3 
Revelation induces only experience. 4 Miracles, on the other hand, induce 
action. 5 They are more useful now because of their interpersonal nature. 6 In 
this phase of learning, working miracles is important because freedom from fear 
cannot be thrust upon you. 7 Revelation is literally unspeakable because it is 
an experience of unspeakable love.

T-1.II.3. Awe should be reserved for revelation, to which it is perfectly and 
correctly applicable. 2 It is not appropriate for miracles because a state of 
awe is worshipful, implying that one of a lesser order stands before his 
Creator. 3 You are a perfect creation, and should experience awe only in the 
Presence of the Creator of perfection. 4 The miracle is therefore a sign of love 
among equals. 5 Equals should not be in awe of one another because awe implies 
inequality. 6 It is therefore an inappropriate reaction to me. 7 An elder 
brother is entitled to respect for his greater experience, and obedience for his 
greater wisdom. 8 He is also entitled to love because he is a brother, and to 
devotion if he is devoted. 9 It is only my devotion that entitles me to yours. 
10 There is nothing about me that you cannot attain. 11 I have nothing that does 
not come from God. 12 The difference between us now is that I have nothing else. 
13 This leaves me in a state which is only potential in you.

T-1.II.4. "No man cometh unto the Father but by me" does not mean that I am in 
any way separate or different from you except in time, and time does not really 
exist. 2 The statement is more meaningful in terms of a vertical rather than a 
horizontal axis. p7 3 You stand below me and I stand below God. 4 In the process 
of "rising up," I am higher because without me the distance between God and man 
would be too great for you to encompass. 5 I bridge the distance as an elder 
brother to you on the one hand, and as a Son of God on the other. 6 My devotion 
to my brothers has placed me in charge of the Sonship, which I render complete 
because I share it. 7 This may appear to contradict the statement "I and my 
Father are one," but there are two parts to the statement in recognition that 
the Father is greater.

T-1.II.5. Revelations are indirectly inspired by me because I am close to the 
Holy Spirit, and alert to the revelation-readiness of my brothers. 2 I can thus 
bring down to them more than they can draw down to themselves. 3 The Holy Spirit 
mediates higher to lower communication, keeping the direct channel from God to 
you open for revelation. 4 Revelation is not reciprocal. 5 It proceeds from God 
to you, but not from you to God.

T-1.II.6. The miracle minimizes the need for time. 2 In the longitudinal or 
horizontal plane the recognition of the equality of the members of the Sonship 
appears to involve almost endless time. 3 However, the miracle entails a sudden 
shift from horizontal to vertical perception. 4 This introduces an interval from 
which the giver and receiver both emerge farther along in time than they would 
otherwise have been. 5 The miracle thus has the unique property of abolishing 
time to the extent that it renders the interval of time it spans unnecessary. 6 
There is no relationship between the time a miracle takes and the time it 
covers. 7 The miracle substitutes for learning that might have taken thousands 
of years. 8 It does so by the underlying recognition of perfect equality of 
giver and receiver on which the miracle rests. 9 The miracle shortens time by 
collapsing it, thus eliminating certain intervals within it. 10 It does this, 
however, within the larger temporal sequence.




III. Atonement and Miracles

T-1.III.1. I am in charge of the process of Atonement, which I undertook to 
begin. 2 When you offer a miracle to any of my brothers, you do it to <yourself> 
and me. 3 The reason you come before me is that I do not need miracles for my 
own Atonement, but I stand at the end in case you fail temporarily. 4 My part in 
the Atonement is the cancelling out of all errors that you could not otherwise 
correct. p8 5 When you have been restored to the recognition of your original 
state, you naturally become part of the Atonement yourself. 6 As you share my 
unwillingness to accept error in yourself and others, you must join the great 
crusade to correct it; listen to my voice, learn to undo error and act to 
correct it. 7 The power to work miracles belongs to you. 8 I will provide the 
opportunities to do them, but you must be ready and willing. 9 Doing them will 
bring conviction in the ability, because conviction comes through 
accomplishment. 10 The ability is the potential, the achievement is its 
expression, and the Atonement, which is the natural profession of the children 
of God, is the purpose.

T-1.III.2. "Heaven and earth shall pass away" means that they will not continue 
to exist as separate states. 2 My word, which is the resurrection and the life, 
shall not pass away because life is eternal. 3 You are the work of God, and His 
work is wholly lovable and wholly loving. 4 This is how a man must think of 
himself in his heart, because this is what he is.

T-1.III.3. The forgiven are the means of the Atonement. 2 Being filled with 
spirit, they forgive in return. 3 Those who are released must join in releasing 
their brothers, for this is the plan of the Atonement. 4 Miracles are the way in 
which minds that serve the Holy Spirit unite with me for the salvation or 
release of all of God's creations.

T-1.III.4. I am the only one who can perform miracles indiscriminately, because 
I am the Atonement. 2 You have a role in the Atonement which I will dictate to 
you. 3 Ask me which miracles you should perform. 4 This spares you needless 
effort, because you will be acting under direct communication. 5 The impersonal 
nature of the miracle is an essential ingredient, because it enables me to 
direct its application, and under my guidance miracles lead to the highly 
personal experience of revelation. 6 A guide does not control but he does 
direct, leaving it up to you to follow. 7 "Lead us not into temptation" means 
"Recognize your errors and choose to abandon them by following my guidance."

T-1.III.5. Error cannot really threaten truth, which can always withstand it. 2 
Only the error is actually vulnerable. 3 You are free to establish your kingdom 
where you see fit, but the right choice is inevitable if you remember this: p9




4 Spirit is in a state of grace forever.

5 Your reality is only spirit.

6 Therefore you are in a state of grace forever.




7 Atonement undoes all errors in this respect, and thus uproots the source of 
fear. 8 Whenever you experience God's reassurances as threat, it is always 
because you are defending misplaced or misdirected loyalty. 9 When you project 
this to others you imprison them, but only to the extent to which you reinforce 
errors they have already made. 10 This makes them vulnerable to the distortions 
of others, since their own perception of themselves is distorted. 11 The miracle 
worker can only bless them, and this undoes their distortions and frees them 
from prison.

T-1.III.6. You respond to what you perceive, and as you perceive so shall you 
behave. 2 The Golden Rule asks you to do unto others as you would have them do 
unto you. 3 This means that the perception of both must be accurate. 4 The 
Golden Rule is the rule for appropriate behavior. 5 You cannot behave 
appropriately unless you perceive correctly. 6 Since you and your neighbor are 
equal members of one family, as you perceive both so you will do to both. 7 You 
should look out from the perception of your own holiness to the holiness of 
others.

T-1.III.7. Miracles arise from a mind that is ready for them. 2 By being united 
this mind goes out to everyone, even without the awareness of the miracle worker 
himself. 3 The impersonal nature of miracles is because the Atonement itself is 
one, uniting all creations with their Creator. 4 As an expression of what you 
truly are, the miracle places the mind in a state of grace. 5 The mind then 
naturally welcomes the Host within and the stranger without. 6 When you bring in 
the stranger, he becomes your brother.

T-1.III.8. That the miracle may have effects on your brothers that you may not 
recognize is not your concern. 2 The miracle will always bless <you>. 3 Miracles 
you are not asked to perform have not lost their value. 4 They are still 
expressions of your own state of grace, but the action aspect of the miracle 
should be controlled by me because of my complete awareness of the whole plan. 5 
The impersonal nature of miracle-mindedness ensures your grace, but only I am in 
a position to know where they can be bestowed.

T-1.III.9. Miracles are selective only in the sense that they are directed 
towards those who can use them for themselves. 2 Since this makes it inevitable 
that they will extend them to others, a strong chain of Atonement is welded. p10 
3 However, this selectivity takes no account of the magnitude of the miracle 
itself, because the concept of size exists on a plane that is itself unreal. 4 
Since the miracle aims at restoring the awareness of reality, it would not be 
useful if it were bound by laws that govern the error it aims to correct.




IV. The Escape from Darkness

T-1.IV.1. The escape from darkness involves two stages: First, the recognition 
that darkness cannot hide. 2 This step usually entails fear. 3 Second, the 
recognition that there is nothing you want to hide even if you could. 4 This 
step brings escape from fear. 5 When you have become willing to hide nothing, 
you will not only be willing to enter into communion but will also understand 
peace and joy.

T-1.IV.2. Holiness can never be really hidden in darkness, but you can deceive 
yourself about it. 2 This deception makes you fearful because you realize in 
your heart it <is> a deception, and you exert enormous efforts to establish its 
reality. 3 The miracle sets reality where it belongs. 4 Reality belongs only to 
spirit, and the miracle acknowledges only truth. 5 It thus dispels illusions 
about yourself, and puts you in communion with yourself and God. 6 The miracle 
joins in the Atonement by placing the mind in the service of the Holy Spirit. 7 
This establishes the proper function of the mind and corrects its errors, which 
are merely lacks of love. 8 Your mind can be possessed by illusions, but spirit 
is eternally free. 9 If a mind perceives without love, it perceives an empty 
shell and is unaware of the spirit within. 10 But the Atonement restores spirit 
to its proper place. 11 The mind that serves spirit <is> invulnerable.

T-1.IV.3. Darkness is lack of light as sin is lack of love. 2 It has no unique 
properties of its own. 3 It is an example of the "scarcity" belief, from which 
only error can proceed. 4 Truth is always abundant. 5 Those who perceive and 
acknowledge that they have everything have no needs of any kind. 6 The purpose 
of the Atonement is to restore everything to you; or rather, to restore it to 
your awareness. 7 You were given everything when you were created, just as 
everyone was.

T-1.IV.4. The emptiness engendered by fear must be replaced by forgiveness. 2 
That is what the Bible means by "There is no death," and why I could demonstrate 
that death does not exist. 3 I came to fulfill the law by reinterpreting it. p11 
4 The law itself, if properly understood, offers only protection. 5 It is those 
who have not yet changed their minds who brought the "hell-fire" concept into 
it. 6 I assure you that I will witness for anyone who lets me, and to whatever 
extent he permits it. 7 Your witnessing demonstrates your belief, and thus 
strengthens it. 8 Those who witness for me are expressing, through their 
miracles, that they have abandoned the belief in deprivation in favor of the 
abundance they have learned belongs to them.




V. Wholeness and Spirit

T-1.V.1. The miracle is much like the body in that both are learning aids for 
facilitating a state in which they become unnecessary. 2 When spirit's original 
state of direct communication is reached, neither the body nor the miracle 
serves any purpose. 3 While you believe you are in a body, however, you can 
choose between loveless and miraculous channels of expression. 4 You can make an 
empty shell, but you cannot express nothing at all. 5 You can wait, delay, 
paralyze yourself, or reduce your creativity almost to nothing. 6 But you cannot 
abolish it. 7 You can destroy your medium of communication, but not your 
potential. 8 You did not create yourself.

T-1.V.2. The basic decision of the miracle-minded is not to wait on time any 
longer than is necessary. 2 Time can waste as well as be wasted. 3 The miracle 
worker, therefore, accepts the time-control factor gladly. 4 He recognizes that 
every collapse of time brings everyone closer to the ultimate release from time, 
in which the Son and the Father are One. 5 Equality does not imply equality 
<now>. 6 When everyone recognizes that he has everything, individual 
contributions to the Sonship will no longer be necessary.

T-1.V.3. When the Atonement has been completed, all talents will be shared by 
all the Sons of God. 2 God is not partial. 3 All His children have His total 
Love, and all His gifts are freely given to everyone alike. 4 "Except ye become 
as little children" means that unless you fully recognize your complete 
dependence on God, you cannot know the real power of the Son in his true 
relationship with the Father. 5 The specialness of God's Sons does not stem from 
exclusion but from inclusion. 6 All my brothers are special. 7 If they believe 
they are deprived of anything, their perception becomes distorted. 8 When this 
occurs the whole family of God, or the Sonship, is impaired in its 
relationships. p12

T-1.V.4. Ultimately, every member of the family of God must return. 2 The 
miracle calls him to return because it blesses and honors him, even though he 
may be absent in spirit. 3 "God is not mocked" is not a warning but a 
reassurance. 4 God <would> be mocked if any of His creations lacked holiness. 5 
The creation is whole, and the mark of wholeness is holiness. 6 Miracles are 
affirmations of Sonship, which is a state of completion and abundance.

T-1.V.5. Whatever is true is eternal, and cannot change or be changed. 2 Spirit 
is therefore unalterable because it is already perfect, but the mind can elect 
what it chooses to serve. 3 The only limit put on its choice is that it cannot 
serve two masters. 4 If it elects to do so, the mind can become the medium by 
which spirit creates along the line of its own creation. 5 If it does not freely 
elect to do so, it retains its creative potential but places itself under 
tyrannous rather than Authoritative control. 6 As a result it imprisons, because 
such are the dictates of tyrants. 7 To change your mind means to place it at the 
disposal of <true> Authority.

T-1.V.6. The miracle is a sign that the mind has chosen to be led by me in 
Christ's service. 2 The abundance of Christ is the natural result of choosing to 
follow Him. 3 All shallow roots must be uprooted, because they are not deep 
enough to sustain you. 4 The illusion that shallow roots can be deepened, and 
thus made to hold, is one of the distortions on which the reverse of the Golden 
Rule rests. 5 As these false underpinnings are given up, the equilibrium is 
temporarily experienced as unstable. 6 However, nothing is less stable than an 
upside-down orientation. 7 Nor can anything that holds it upside down be 
conducive to increased stability.




VI. The Illusion of Needs

T-1.VI.1. You who want peace can find it only by complete forgiveness. 2 No 
learning is acquired by anyone unless he wants to learn it and believes in some 
way that he needs it. 3 While lack does not exist in the creation of God, it is 
very apparent in what you have made. 4 It is, in fact, the essential difference 
between them. 5 Lack implies that you would be better off in a state somehow 
different from the one you are in. 6 Until the "separation," which is the 
meaning of the "fall," nothing was lacking. 7 There were no needs at all. 8 
Needs arise only when you deprive yourself. 9 You act according to the 
particular order of needs you establish. p13 10 This, in turn, depends on your 
perception of what you are.

T-1.VI.2. A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need 
correct. 2 This sense of separation would never have arisen if you had not 
distorted your perception of truth, and had thus perceived yourself as lacking. 
3 The idea of order of needs arose because, having made this fundamental error, 
you had already fragmented yourself into levels with different needs. 4 As you 
integrate you become one, and your needs become one accordingly. 5 Unified needs 
lead to unified action, because this produces a lack of conflict.

T-1.VI.3. The idea of orders of need, which follows from the original error that 
one can be separated from God, requires correction at its own level before the 
error of perceiving levels at all can be corrected. 2 You cannot behave 
effectively while you function on different levels. 3 However, while you do, 
correction must be introduced vertically from the bottom up. 4 This is because 
you think you live in space, where concepts such as "up" and "down" are 
meaningful. 5 Ultimately, space is as meaningless as time. 6 Both are merely 
beliefs.

T-1.VI.4. The real purpose of this world is to use it to correct your unbelief. 
2 You can never control the effects of fear yourself, because you made fear, and 
you believe in what you made. 3 In attitude, then, though not in content, you 
resemble your Creator, Who has perfect faith in His creations <because> He 
created them. 4 Belief produces the acceptance of existence. 5 That is why you 
can believe what no one else thinks is true. 6 It is true for you because it was 
made by you.

T-1.VI.5. All aspects of fear are untrue because they do not exist at the 
creative level, and therefore do not exist at all. 2 To whatever extent you are 
willing to submit your beliefs to this test, to that extent are your perceptions 
corrected. 3 In sorting out the false from the true, the miracle proceeds along 
these lines:




4 Perfect love casts out fear.

5 If fear exists,

Then there is not perfect love.




6 But: 




7 Only perfect love exists. 

8 If there is fear, 

It produces a state that does not exist. p14




9 Believe this and you will be free. 10 Only God can establish this solution, 
and this faith <is His gift.>






VII. Distortions of Miracle Impulses

T-1.VII.1. Your distorted perceptions produce a dense cover over miracle 
impulses, making it hard for them to reach your own awareness. 2 The confusion 
of miracle impulses with physical impulses is a major perceptual distortion. 3 
Physical impulses are misdirected miracle impulses. 4 All real pleasure comes 
from doing God's Will. 5 This is because <not> doing it is a denial of Self. 6 
Denial of Self results in illusions, while correction of the error brings 
release from it. 7 Do not deceive yourself into believing that you can relate in 
peace to God or to your brothers with anything external.

T-1.VII.2. Child of God, you were created to create the good, the beautiful and 
the holy. 2 Do not forget this. 3 The Love of God, for a little while, must 
still be expressed through one body to another, because vision is still so dim. 
4 You can use your body best to help you enlarge your perception so you can 
achieve real vision, of which the physical eye is incapable. 5 Learning to do 
this is the body's only true usefulness.

T-1.VII.3. Fantasy is a distorted form of vision. 2 Fantasies of any kind are 
distortions, because they always involve twisting perception into unreality. 3 
Actions that stem from distortions are literally the reactions of those who know 
not what they do. 4 Fantasy is an attempt to control reality according to false 
needs. 5 Twist reality in any way and you are perceiving destructively. 6 
Fantasies are a means of making false associations and attempting to obtain 
pleasure from them. 7 But although you can perceive false associations, you can 
never make them real except to yourself. 8 You believe in what you make. 9 If 
you offer miracles, you will be equally strong in your belief in them. 10 The 
strength of your conviction will then sustain the belief of the miracle 
receiver. 11 Fantasies become totally unnecessary as the wholly satisfying 
nature of reality becomes apparent to both giver and receiver. 12 Reality is 
"lost" through usurpation, which produces tyranny. 13 As long as a single 
"slave" remains to walk the earth, your release is not complete. 14 Complete 
restoration of the Sonship is the only goal of the miracle-minded. p15

T-1.VII.4. This is a course in mind training. 2 All learning involves attention 
and study at some level. 3 Some of the later parts of the course rest too 
heavily on these earlier sections not to require their careful study. 4 You will 
also need them for preparation. 5 Without this, you may become much too fearful 
of what is to come to make constructive use of it. 6 However, as you study these 
earlier sections, you will begin to see some of the implications that will be 
amplified later on.

T-1.VII.5. A solid foundation is necessary because of the confusion between fear 
and awe to which I have already referred, and which is often made. 2 I have said 
that awe is inappropriate in connection with the Sons of God, because you should 
not experience awe in the presence of your equals. 3 However, it was also 
emphasized that awe is proper in the Presence of your Creator. 4 I have been 
careful to clarify my role in the Atonement without either over- or understating 
it. 5 I am also trying to do the same with yours. 6 I have stressed that awe is 
not an appropriate reaction to me because of our inherent equality. 7 Some of 
the later steps in this course, however, involve a more direct approach to God 
Himself. 8 It would be unwise to start on these steps without careful 
preparation, or awe will be confused with fear, and the experience will be more 
traumatic than beatific. 9 Healing is of God in the end. 10 The means are being 
carefully explained to you. 11 Revelation may occasionally reveal the end to 
you, but to reach it the means are needed. p16






Chapter 2.

THE SEPARATION AND THE ATONEMENT

I. The Origins of Separation

T-2.I.1. To extend is a fundamental aspect of God which He gave to His Son. 2 In 
the creation, God extended Himself to His creations and imbued them with the 
same loving Will to create. 3 You have not only been fully created, but have 
also been created perfect. 4 There is no emptiness in you. 5 Because of your 
likeness to your Creator you are creative. 6 No child of God can lose this 
ability because it is inherent in what he is, but he can use it inappropriately 
by projecting. 7 The inappropriate use of extension, or projection, occurs when 
you believe that some emptiness or lack exists in you, and that you can fill it 
with your own ideas instead of truth. 8 This process involves the following 
steps:




9 First, you believe that what God created can be changed by your own mind. 

10 Second, you believe that what is perfect can be rendered imperfect or 
lacking.

11 Third, you believe that you can distort the creations of God, including 
yourself.

12 Fourth, you believe that you can create yourself, and that the direction of 
your own creation is up to you.

T-2.I.2. These related distortions represent a picture of what actually occurred 
in the separation, or the "detour into fear." 2 None of this existed before the 
separation, nor does it actually exist now. 3 Everything God created is like 
Him. 4 Extension, as undertaken by God, is similar to the inner radiance that 
the children of the Father inherit from Him. 5 Its real source is internal. 6 
This is as true of the Son as of the Father. 7 In this sense the creation 
includes both the creation of the Son by God, and the Son's creations when his 
mind is healed. 8 This requires God's endowment of the Son with free will, 
because all loving creation is freely given in one continuous line, in which all 
aspects are of the same order.

T-2.I.3. The Garden of Eden, or the pre-separation condition, was a state of 
mind in which nothing was needed. 2 When Adam listened to the "lies of the 
serpent," all he heard was untruth. 3 You do not have to continue to believe 
what is not true unless you choose to do so. p17 4 All that can literally 
disappear in the twinkling of an eye because it is merely a misperception. 5 
What is seen in dreams seems to be very real. 6 Yet the Bible says that a deep 
sleep fell upon Adam, and nowhere is there reference to his waking up. 7 The 
world has not yet experienced any comprehensive reawakening or rebirth. 8 Such a 
rebirth is impossible as long as you continue to project or miscreate. 9 It 
still remains within you, however, to extend as God extended His Spirit to you. 
10 In reality this is your only choice, because your free will was given you for 
your joy in creating the perfect.

T-2.I.4. All fear is ultimately reducible to the basic misperception that you 
have the ability to usurp the power of God. 2 Of course, you neither can nor 
have been able to do this. 3 Here is the real basis for your escape from fear. 4 
The escape is brought about by your acceptance of the Atonement, which enables 
you to realize that your errors never really occurred. 5 Only after the deep 
sleep fell upon Adam could he experience nightmares. 6 If a light is suddenly 
turned on while someone is dreaming a fearful dream, he may initially interpret 
the light itself as part of his dream and be afraid of it. 7 However, when he 
awakens, the light is correctly perceived as the release from the dream, which 
is then no longer accorded reality. 8 This release does not depend on illusions. 
9 The knowledge that illuminates not only sets you free, but also shows you 
clearly that you <are> free.

T-2.I.5. Whatever lies you may believe are of no concern to the miracle, which 
can heal any of them with equal ease. 2 It makes no distinctions among 
misperceptions. 3 Its sole concern is to distinguish between truth on the one 
hand, and error on the other. 4 Some miracles may seem to be of greater 
magnitude than others. 5 But remember the first principle in this course; there 
is no order of difficulty in miracles. 6 In reality you are perfectly unaffected 
by all expressions of lack of love. 7 These can be from yourself and others, 
from yourself to others, or from others to you. 8 Peace is an attribute <in> 
you. 9 You cannot find it outside. 10 Illness is some form of external 
searching. 11 Health is inner peace. 12 It enables you to remain unshaken by 
lack of love from without and capable, through your acceptance of miracles, of 
correcting the conditions proceeding from lack of love in others. p18




II. The Atonement as Defense

T-2.II.1. You can do anything I ask. 2 I have asked you to perform miracles, and 
have made it clear that miracles are natural, corrective, healing and universal. 
3 There is nothing they cannot do, but they cannot be performed in the spirit of 
doubt or fear. 4 When you are afraid of anything, you are acknowledging its 
power to hurt you. 5 Remember that where your heart is, there is your treasure 
also. 6 You believe in what you value. 7 If you are afraid, you are valuing 
wrongly. 8 Your understanding will then inevitably value wrongly, and by 
endowing all thoughts with equal power will inevitably destroy peace. 9 That is 
why the Bible speaks of "the peace of God which passeth understanding." 10 This 
peace is totally incapable of being shaken by errors of any kind. 11 It denies 
the ability of anything not of God to affect you. 12 This is the proper use of 
denial. 13 It is not used to hide anything, but to correct error. 14 It brings 
all error into the light, and since error and darkness are the same, it corrects 
error automatically.

T-2.II.2. True denial is a powerful protective device. 2 You can and should deny 
any belief that error can hurt you. 3 This kind of denial is not a concealment 
but a correction. 4 Your right mind depends on it. 5 Denial of error is a strong 
defense of truth, but denial of truth results in miscreation, the projections of 
the ego. 6 In the service of the right mind the denial of error frees the mind, 
and re-establishes the freedom of the will. 7 When the will is really free it 
cannot miscreate, because it recognizes only truth.

T-2.II.3. You can defend truth as well as error. 2 The means are easier to 
understand after the value of the goal is firmly established. 3 It is a question 
of what it is <for.> 4 Everyone defends his treasure, and will do so 
automatically. 5 The real questions are, what do you treasure, and how much do 
you treasure it? 6 Once you have learned to consider these questions and to 
bring them into all your actions, you will have little difficulty in clarifying 
the means. 7 The means are available whenever you ask. 8 You can, however, save 
time if you do not protract this step unduly. 9 The correct focus will shorten 
it immeasurably.

T-2.II.4. The Atonement is the only defense that cannot be used destructively 
because it is not a device you made. 2 The Atonement <principle> was in effect 
long before the Atonement began. 3 The principle was love and the Atonement was 
an <act> of love. 4 Acts were not necessary before the separation, because 
belief in space and time did not exist. p19 5 It was only after the separation 
that the Atonement and the conditions necessary for its fulfillment were 
planned. 6 Then a defense so splendid was needed that it could not be misused, 
although it could be refused. 7 Refusal could not, however, turn it into a 
weapon of attack, which is the inherent characteristic of other defenses. 8 The 
Atonement thus becomes the only defense that is not a two-edged sword. 9 It can 
only heal.

T-2.II.5. The Atonement was built into the space-time belief to set a limit on 
the need for the belief itself, and ultimately to make learning complete. 2 The 
Atonement is the final lesson. 3 Learning itself, like the classrooms in which 
it occurs, is temporary. 4 The ability to learn has no value when change is no 
longer necessary. 5 The eternally creative have nothing to learn. 6 You can 
learn to improve your perceptions, and can become a better and better learner. 7 
This will bring you into closer and closer accord with the Sonship; but the 
Sonship itself is a perfect creation and perfection is not a matter of degree. 8 
Only while there is a belief in differences is learning meaningful.

T-2.II.6. Evolution is a process in which you seem to proceed from one degree to 
the next. 2 You correct your previous missteps by stepping forward. 3 This 
process is actually incomprehensible in temporal terms, because you return as 
you go forward. 4 The Atonement is the device by which you can free yourself 
from the past as you go ahead. 5 It undoes your past errors, thus making it 
unnecessary for you to keep retracing your steps without advancing to your 
return. 6 In this sense the Atonement saves time, but like the miracle it 
serves, does not abolish it. 7 As long as there is need for Atonement, there is 
need for time. 8 But the Atonement as a completed plan has a unique relationship 
to time. 9 Until the Atonement is complete, its various phases will proceed in 
time, but the whole Atonement stands at time's end. 10 At that point the bridge 
of return has been built.

T-2.II.7. The Atonement is a total commitment. 2 You may still think this is 
associated with loss, a mistake all the separated Sons of God make in one way or 
another. 3 It is hard to believe a defense that cannot attack is the best 
defense. 4 This is what is meant by "the meek shall inherit the earth." 5 They 
will literally take it over because of their strength. 6 A two-way defense is 
inherently weak precisely because it has two edges, and can be turned against 
you very unexpectedly. 7 This possibility cannot be controlled except by 
miracles. p20 8 The miracle turns the defense of Atonement to your real 
protection, and as you become more and more secure you assume your natural 
talent of protecting others, knowing yourself as both a brother and a Son.




III. The Altar of God

T-2.III.1. The Atonement can only be accepted within you by releasing the inner 
light. 2 Since the separation, defenses have been used almost entirely to defend 
<against> the Atonement, and thus maintain the separation. 3 This is generally 
seen as a need to protect the body. 4 The many body fantasies in which minds 
engage arise from the distorted belief that the body can be used as a means for 
attaining "atonement." 5 Perceiving the body as a temple is only the first step 
in correcting this distortion, because it alters only part of it. 6 It <does> 
recognize that Atonement in physical terms is impossible. 7 The next step, 
however, is to realize that a temple is not a structure at all. 8 Its true 
holiness lies at the inner altar around which the structure is built. 9 The 
emphasis on beautiful structures is a sign of the fear of Atonement, and an 
unwillingness to reach the altar itself. 10 The real beauty of the temple cannot 
be seen with the physical eye. 11 Spiritual sight, on the other hand, cannot see 
the structure at all because it is perfect vision. 12 It can, however, see the 
altar with perfect clarity.

T-2.III.2. For perfect effectiveness the Atonement belongs at the center of the 
inner altar, where it undoes the separation and restores the wholeness of the 
mind. 2 Before the separation the mind was invulnerable to fear, because fear 
did not exist. 3 Both the separation and the fear are miscreations that must be 
undone for the restoration of the temple, and for the opening of the altar to 
receive the Atonement. 4 This heals the separation by placing within you the one 
effective defense against all separation thoughts and making you perfectly 
invulnerable.

T-2.III.3. The acceptance of the Atonement by everyone is only a matter of time. 
2 This may appear to contradict free will because of the inevitability of the 
final decision, but this is not so. 3 You can temporize and you are capable of 
enormous procrastination, but you cannot depart entirely from your Creator, Who 
set the limits on your ability to miscreate. 4 An imprisoned will engenders a 
situation which, in the extreme, becomes altogether intolerable. p21 5 Tolerance 
for pain may be high, but it is not without limit. 6 Eventually everyone begins 
to recognize, however dimly, that there <must> be a better way. 7 As this 
recognition becomes more firmly established, it becomes a turning point. 8 This 
ultimately reawakens spiritual vision, simultaneously weakening the investment 
in physical sight. 9 The alternating investment in the two levels of perception 
is usually experienced as conflict, which can become very acute. 10 But the 
outcome is as certain as God.

T-2.III.4. Spiritual vision literally cannot see error, and merely looks for 
Atonement. 2 All solutions the physical eye seeks dissolve. 3 Spiritual vision 
looks within and recognizes immediately that the altar has been defiled and 
needs to be repaired and protected. 4 Perfectly aware of the right defense it 
passes over all others, looking past error to truth. 5 Because of the strength 
of its vision, it brings the mind into its service. 6 This re-establishes the 
power of the mind and makes it increasingly unable to tolerate delay, realizing 
that it only adds unnecessary pain. 7 As a result, the mind becomes increasingly 
sensitive to what it would once have regarded as very minor intrusions of 
discomfort.

T-2.III.5. The children of God are entitled to the perfect comfort that comes 
from perfect trust. 2 Until they achieve this, they waste themselves and their 
true creative powers on useless attempts to make themselves more comfortable by 
inappropriate means. 3 But the real means are already provided, and do not 
involve any effort at all on their part. 4 The Atonement is the only gift that 
is worthy of being offered at the altar of God, because of the value of the 
altar itself. 5 It was created perfect and is entirely worthy of receiving 
perfection. 6 God and His creations are completely dependent on Each Other. 7 He 
depends on them <because> He created them perfect. 8 He gave them His peace so 
they could not be shaken and could not be deceived. 9 Whenever you are afraid 
you <are> deceived, and your mind cannot serve the Holy Spirit. 10 This starves 
you by denying you your daily bread. 11 God is lonely without His Sons, and they 
are lonely without Him. 12 They must learn to look upon the world as a means of 
healing the separation. 13 The Atonement is the guarantee that they will 
ultimately succeed. p22




IV. Healing as Release from Fear

T-2.IV.1. Our emphasis is now on healing. 2 The miracle is the means, the 
Atonement is the principle, and healing is the result. 3 To speak of "a miracle 
of healing" is to combine two orders of reality inappropriately. 4 Healing is 
not a miracle. 5 The Atonement, or the final miracle, is a remedy and any type 
of healing is a result. 6 The kind of error to which Atonement is applied is 
irrelevant. 7 All healing is essentially the release from fear. 8 To undertake 
this you cannot be fearful yourself. 9 You do not understand healing because of 
your own fear.

T-2.IV.2. A major step in the Atonement plan is to undo error at all levels. 2 
Sickness or "not-right-mindedness" is the result of level confusion, because it 
always entails the belief that what is amiss on one level can adversely affect 
another. 3 We have referred to miracles as the means of correcting level 
confusion, for all mistakes must be corrected at the level on which they occur. 
4 Only the mind is capable of error. 5 The body can act wrongly only when it is 
responding to misthought. 6 The body cannot create, and the belief that it can, 
a fundamental error, produces all physical symptoms. 7 Physical illness 
represents a belief in magic. 8 The whole distortion that made magic rests on 
the belief that there is a creative ability in matter which the mind cannot 
control. 9 This error can take two forms; it can be believed that the mind can 
miscreate in the body, or that the body can miscreate in the mind. 10 When it is 
understood that the mind, the only level of creation, cannot create beyond 
itself, neither type of confusion need occur.

T-2.IV.3. Only the mind can create because spirit has already been created, and 
the body is a learning device for the mind. 2 Learning devices are not lessons 
in themselves. 3 Their purpose is merely to facilitate learning. 4 The worst a 
faulty use of a learning device can do is to fail to facilitate learning. 5 It 
has no power in itself to introduce actual learning errors. 6 The body, if 
properly understood, shares the invulnerability of the Atonement to two-edged 
application. 7 This is not because the body is a miracle, but because it is not 
inherently open to misinterpretation. 8 The body is merely part of your 
experience in the physical world. 9 Its abilities can be and frequently are 
overevaluated. 10 However, it is almost impossible to deny its existence in this 
world. 11 Those who do so are engaging in a particularly unworthy form of 
denial. 12 The term "unworthy" here implies only that it is not necessary to 
protect the mind by denying the unmindful. p23 13 If one denies this unfortunate 
aspect of the mind's power, one is also denying the power itself.

T-2.IV.4. All material means that you accept as remedies for bodily ills are 
restatements of magic principles. 2 This is the first step in believing that the 
body makes its own illness. 3 It is a second misstep to attempt to heal it 
through non-creative agents. 4 It does not follow, however, that the use of such 
agents for corrective purposes is evil. 5 Sometimes the illness has a 
sufficiently strong hold over the mind to render a person temporarily 
inaccessible to the Atonement. 6 In this case it may be wise to utilize a 
compromise approach to mind and body, in which something from the outside is 
temporarily given healing belief. 7 This is because the last thing that can help 
the non-right-minded, or the sick, is an increase in fear. 8 They are already in 
a fear-weakened state. 9 If they are prematurely exposed to a miracle, they may 
be precipitated into panic. 10 This is likely to occur when upside-down 
perception has induced the belief that miracles are frightening.

T-2.IV.5. The value of the Atonement does not lie in the manner in which it is 
expressed. 2 In fact, if it is used truly, it will inevitably be expressed in 
whatever way is most helpful to the receiver. 3 This means that a miracle, to 
attain its full efficacy, must be expressed in a language that the recipient can 
understand without fear. 4 This does not necessarily mean that this is the 
highest level of communication of which he is capable. 5 It does mean, however, 
that it is the highest level of communication of which he is capable <now.> 6 
The whole aim of the miracle is to raise the level of communication, not to 
lower it by increasing fear.




V. The Function of the Miracle Worker

T-2.V.1. Before miracle workers are ready to undertake their function in this 
world, it is essential that they fully understand the fear of release. 2 
Otherwise they may unwittingly foster the belief that release is imprisonment, a 
belief that is already very prevalent. 3 This misperception arises in turn from 
the belief that harm can be limited to the body. 4 That is because of the 
underlying fear that the mind can hurt itself. 5 None of these errors is 
meaningful, because the miscreations of the mind do not really exist. 6 This 
recognition is a far better protective device than any form of level confusion, 
because it introduces correction at the level of the error. p24 7 It is 
essential to remember that only the mind can create, and that correction belongs 
at the thought level. 8 To amplify an earlier statement, spirit is already 
perfect and therefore does not require correction. 9 The body does not exist 
except as a learning device for the mind. 10 This learning device is not subject 
to errors of its own, because it cannot create. 11 It is obvious, then, that 
inducing the mind to give up its miscreations is the only application of 
creative ability that is truly meaningful.

T-2.V.2. Magic is the mindless or the miscreative use of mind. 2 Physical 
medications are forms of "spells," but if you are afraid to use the mind to 
heal, you should not attempt to do so. 3 The very fact that you are afraid makes 
your mind vulnerable to miscreation. 4 You are therefore likely to misunderstand 
any healing that might occur, and because egocentricity and fear usually occur 
together, you may be unable to accept the real Source of the healing. 5 Under 
these conditions, it is safer for you to rely temporarily on physical healing 
devices, because you cannot misperceive them as your own creations. 6 As long as 
your sense of vulnerability persists, you should not attempt to perform 
miracles.

T-2.V.3. I have already said that miracles are expressions of miracle-
mindedness, and miracle-mindedness means right-mindedness. 2 The right-minded 
neither exalt nor depreciate the mind of the miracle worker or the miracle 
receiver. 3 However, as a correction, the miracle need not await the right-
mindedness of the receiver. 4 In fact, its purpose is to restore him <to> his 
right mind. 5 It is essential, however, that the miracle worker be in his right 
mind, however briefly, or he will be unable to re-establish right-mindedness in 
someone else.

T-2.V.4. The healer who relies on his own readiness is endangering his 
understanding. 2 You are perfectly safe as long as you are completely 
unconcerned about your readiness, but maintain a consistent trust in mine. 3 If 
your miracle working inclinations are not functioning properly, it is always 
because fear has intruded on your right-mindedness and has turned it upside 
down. 4 All forms of not-right-mindedness are the result of refusal to accept 
the Atonement for yourself. 5 If you do accept it, you are in a position to 
recognize that those who need healing are simply those who have not realized 
that right-mindedness <is> healing.

T-2.V.5. <The sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the 
Atonement for himself.> p25 2 This means you recognize that mind is the only 
creative level, and that its errors are healed by the Atonement. 3 Once you 
accept this, your mind can only heal. 4 By denying your mind any destructive 
potential and reinstating its purely constructive powers, you place yourself in 
a position to undo the level confusion of others. 5 The message you then give to 
them is the truth that their minds are similarly constructive, and their 
miscreations cannot hurt them. 6 By affirming this you release the mind from 
overevaluating its own learning device, and restore the mind to its true 
position as the learner.

T-2.V.6. It should be emphasized again that the body does not learn any more 
than it creates. 2 As a learning device it merely follows the learner, but if it 
is falsely endowed with self-initiative, it becomes a serious obstruction to the 
very learning it should facilitate. 3 Only the mind is capable of illumination. 
4 Spirit is already illuminated and the body in itself is too dense. 5 The mind, 
however, can bring its illumination to the body by recognizing that it is not 
the learner, and is therefore unamenable to learning. 6 The body is, however, 
easily brought into alignment with a mind that has learned to look beyond it 
toward the light.

T-2.V.7. Corrective learning always begins with the awakening of spirit, and the 
turning away from the belief in physical sight. 2 This often entails fear, 
because you are afraid of what your spiritual sight will show you. 3 I said 
before that the Holy Spirit cannot see error, and is capable only of looking 
beyond it to the defense of Atonement. 4 There is no doubt that this may produce 
discomfort, yet the discomfort is not the final outcome of the perception. 5 
When the Holy Spirit is permitted to look upon the defilement of the altar, He 
also looks immediately toward the Atonement. 6 Nothing He perceives can induce 
fear. 7 Everything that results from spiritual awareness is merely channelized 
toward correction. 8 Discomfort is aroused only to bring the need for correction 
into awareness.

T-2.V.8. The fear of healing arises in the end from an unwillingness to accept 
unequivocally that healing is necessary. 2 What the physical eye sees is not 
corrective, nor can error be corrected by any device that can be seen 
physically. 3 As long as you believe in what your physical sight tells you, your 
attempts at correction will be misdirected. 4 The real vision is obscured, 
because you cannot endure to see your own defiled altar. 5 But since the altar 
has been defiled, your state becomes doubly dangerous unless it <is> perceived. 
p26

T-2.V.9. Healing is an ability that developed after the separation, before which 
it was unnecessary. 2 Like all aspects of the belief in space and time, it is 
temporary. 3 However, as long as time persists, healing is needed as a means of 
protection. 4 This is because healing rests on charity, and charity is a way of 
perceiving the perfection of another even if you cannot perceive it in yourself. 
5 Most of the loftier concepts of which you are capable now are time-dependent. 
6 Charity is really a weaker reflection of a much more powerful love-
encompassment that is far beyond any form of charity you can conceive of as yet. 
7 Charity is essential to right-mindedness in the limited sense in which it can 
now be attained.

T-2.V.10. Charity is a way of looking at another as if he had already gone far 
beyond his actual accomplishments in time. 2 Since his own thinking is faulty he 
cannot see the Atonement for himself, or he would have no need of charity. 3 The 
charity that is accorded him is both an acknowledgment that he needs help, and a 
recognition that he will accept it. 4 Both of these perceptions clearly imply 
their dependence on time, making it apparent that charity still lies within the 
limitations of this world. 5 I said before that only revelation transcends time. 
6 The miracle, as an expression of charity, can only shorten it. 7 It must be 
understood, however, that whenever you offer a miracle to another, you are 
shortening the suffering of both of you. 8 This corrects retroactively as well 
as progressively.




A. Special Principles of Miracle Workers

T-2.V.A.11. (1) The miracle abolishes the need for lower-order concerns. 2 Since 
it is an out-of-pattern time interval, the ordinary considerations of time and 
space do not apply. 3 When you perform a miracle, I will arrange both time and 
space to adjust to it.

T-2.V.A.12. (2) A clear distinction between what is created and what is made is 
essential. 2 All forms of healing rest on this fundamental correction in level 
perception.

T-2.V.A.13. (3) Never confuse right- and wrong-mindedness. 2 Responding to any 
form of error with anything except a desire to heal is an expression of this 
confusion.

T-2.V.A.14. (4) The miracle is always a denial of this error and an affirmation 
of the truth. 2 Only right-mindedness can correct in a way that has any real 
effect. 3 Pragmatically, what has no real effect has no real existence. p27 4 
Its effect, then, is emptiness. 5 Being without substantial content, it lends 
itself to projection.

T-2.V.A.15. (5) The level-adjustment power of the miracle induces the right 
perception for healing. 2 Until this has occurred healing cannot be understood. 
3 Forgiveness is an empty gesture unless it entails correction. 4 Without this 
it is essentially judgmental, rather than healing.

T-2.V.A.16. (6) Miracle-minded forgiveness is <only> correction. 2 It has no 
element of judgment at all. 3 The statement "Father forgive them for they know 
not what they do" in no way evaluates <what> they do. 4 It is an appeal to God 
to heal their minds. 5 There is no reference to the outcome of the error. 6 That 
does not matter.

T-2.V.A.17. (7) The injunction "Be of one mind" is the statement for revelation-
readiness. 2 My request "Do this in remembrance of me" is the appeal for 
cooperation from miracle workers. 3 The two statements are not in the same order 
of reality. 4 Only the latter involves an awareness of time, since to remember 
is to recall the past in the present. 5 Time is under my direction, but 
timelessness belongs to God. 6 In time we exist for and with each other. 7 In 
timelessness we coexist with God.

T-2.V.A.18. (8) You can do much on behalf of your own healing and that of others 
if, in a situation calling for help, you think of it this way: 




2 I am here only to be truly helpful.

3 I am here to represent Him Who sent me. 

4 I do not have to worry about what to say or what to do, because He Who sent me 
will direct me. 

5 I am content to be wherever He wishes, knowing He goes there with me. 

6 I will be healed as I let Him teach me to heal.




VI. Fear and Conflict

T-2.VI.1. Being afraid seems to be involuntary; something beyond your own 
control. 2 Yet I have said already that only constructive acts should be 
involuntary. 3 My control can take over everything that does not matter, while 
my guidance can direct everything that does, if you so choose. 4 Fear cannot be 
controlled by me, but it can be self-controlled. 5 Fear prevents me from giving 
you my control. 6 The presence of fear shows that you have raised body thoughts 
to the level of the mind. p28 7 This removes them from my control, and makes you 
feel personally responsible for them. 8 This is an obvious confusion of levels.

T-2.VI.2. I do not foster level confusion, but you must choose to correct it. 2 
You would not excuse insane behavior on your part by saying you could not help 
it. 3 Why should you condone insane thinking? 4 There is a confusion here that 
you would do well to look at clearly. 5 You may believe that you are responsible 
for what you do, but not for what you think. 6 The truth is that you are 
responsible for what you think, because it is only at this level that you can 
exercise choice. 7 What you do comes from what you think. 8 You cannot separate 
yourself from the truth by "giving" autonomy to behavior. 9 This is controlled 
by me automatically as soon as you place what you think under my guidance. 10 
Whenever you are afraid, it is a sure sign that you have allowed your mind to 
miscreate and have not allowed me to guide it.

T-2.VI.3. It is pointless to believe that controlling the outcome of misthought 
can result in healing. 2 When you are fearful, you have chosen wrongly. 3 That 
is why you feel responsible for it. 4 You must change your mind, not your 
behavior, and this <is> a matter of willingness. 5 You do not need guidance 
except at the mind level. 6 Correction belongs only at the level where change is 
possible. 7 Change does not mean anything at the symptom level, where it cannot 
work.

T-2.VI.4. The correction of fear <is> your responsibility. 2 When you ask for 
release from fear, you are implying that it is not. 3 You should ask, instead, 
for help in the conditions that have brought the fear about. 4 These conditions 
always entail a willingness to be separate. 5 At that level you <can> help it. 6 
You are much too tolerant of mind wandering, and are passively condoning your 
mind's miscreations. 7 The particular result does not matter, but the 
fundamental error does. 8 The correction is always the same. 9 Before you choose 
to do anything, ask me if your choice is in accord with mine. 10 If you are sure 
that it is, there will be no fear.

T-2.VI.5. Fear is always a sign of strain, arising whenever what you want 
conflicts with what you do. 2 This situation arises in two ways: First, you can 
choose to do conflicting things, either simultaneously or successively. 3 This 
produces conflicted behavior, which is intolerable to you because the part of 
the mind that wants to do something else is outraged. 4 Second, you can behave 
as you think you should, but without entirely wanting to do so. p29 5 This 
produces consistent behavior, but entails great strain. 6 In both cases, the 
mind and the behavior are out of accord, resulting in a situation in which you 
are doing what you do not wholly want to do. 7 This arouses a sense of coercion 
that usually produces rage, and projection is likely to follow. 8 Whenever there 
is fear, it is because you have not made up your mind. 9 Your mind is therefore 
split, and your behavior inevitably becomes erratic. 10 Correcting at the 
behavioral level can shift the error from the first to the second type, but will 
not obliterate the fear.

T-2.VI.6. It is possible to reach a state in which you bring your mind under my 
guidance without conscious effort, but this implies a willingness that you have 
not developed as yet. 2 The Holy Spirit cannot ask more than you are willing to 
do. 3 The strength to do comes from your undivided decision. 4 There is no 
strain in doing God's Will as soon as you recognize that it is also your own. 5 
The lesson here is quite simple, but particularly apt to be overlooked. 6 I will 
therefore repeat it, urging you to listen. 7 Only your mind can produce fear. 8 
It does so whenever it is conflicted in what it wants, producing inevitable 
strain because wanting and doing are discordant. 9 This can be corrected only by 
accepting a unified goal.

T-2.VI.7. The first corrective step in undoing the error is to know first that 
the conflict is an expression of fear. 2 Say to yourself that you must somehow 
have chosen not to love, or the fear could not have arisen. 3 Then the whole 
process of correction becomes nothing more than a series of pragmatic steps in 
the larger process of accepting the Atonement as the remedy. 4 These steps may 
be summarized in this way: 

5 Know first that this is fear. 

6 Fear arises from lack of love. 

7 The only remedy for lack of love is perfect love. 

8 Perfect love is the Atonement.

T-2.VI.8. I have emphasized that the miracle, or the expression of Atonement, is 
always a sign of respect <from> the worthy <to> the worthy. 2 The recognition of 
this worth is re-established by the Atonement. 3 It is obvious, then, that when 
you are afraid, you have placed yourself in a position where you need Atonement. 
4 You have done something loveless, having chosen without love. 5 This is 
precisely the situation for which the Atonement was offered. 6 The need for the 
remedy inspired its establishment. 7 As long as you recognize only the need for 
the remedy, you will remain fearful. p30 8 However, as soon as you accept the 
remedy, you have abolished the fear. 9 This is how true healing occurs.

T-2.VI.9. Everyone experiences fear. 2 Yet it would take very little right 
thinking to realize why fear occurs. 3 Few appreciate the real power of the 
mind, and no one remains fully aware of it all the time. 4 However, if you hope 
to spare yourself from fear there are some things you must realize, and realize 
fully. 5 The mind is very powerful, and never loses its creative force. 6 It 
never sleeps. 7 Every instant it is creating. 8 It is hard to recognize that 
thought and belief combine into a power surge that can literally move mountains. 
9 It appears at first glance that to believe such power about yourself is 
arrogant, but that is not the real reason you do not believe it. 10 You prefer 
to believe that your thoughts cannot exert real influence because you are 
actually afraid of them. 11 This may allay awareness of the guilt, but at the 
cost of perceiving the mind as impotent. 12 If you believe that what you think 
is ineffectual you may cease to be afraid of it, but you are hardly likely to 
respect it. 13 There <are> no idle thoughts. 14 All thinking produces form at 
some level.




VII. Cause and Effect

T-2.VII.1. You may still complain about fear, but you nevertheless persist in 
making yourself fearful. 2 I have already indicated that you cannot ask me to 
release you from fear. 3 I know it does not exist, but you do not. 4 If I 
intervened between your thoughts and their results, I would be tampering with a 
basic law of cause and effect; the most fundamental law there is. 5 I would 
hardly help you if I depreciated the power of your own thinking. 6 This would be 
in direct opposition to the purpose of this course. 7 It is much more helpful to 
remind you that you do not guard your thoughts carefully enough. 8 You may feel 
that at this point it would take a miracle to enable you to do this, which is 
perfectly true. 9 You are not used to miracle-minded thinking, but you can be 
trained to think that way. 10 All miracle workers need that kind of training.

T-2.VII.2. I cannot let you leave your mind unguarded, or you will not be able 
to help me. 2 Miracle working entails a full realization of the power of thought 
in order to avoid miscreation. 3 Otherwise a miracle will be necessary to set 
the mind itself straight, a circular process that would not foster the time 
collapse for which the miracle was intended. p31 4 The miracle worker must have 
genuine respect for true cause and effect as a necessary condition for the 
miracle to occur.

T-2.VII.3. Both miracles and fear come from thoughts. 2 If you are not free to 
choose one, you would also not be free to choose the other. 3 By choosing the 
miracle you <have> rejected fear, if only temporarily. 4 You have been fearful 
of everyone and everything. 5 You are afraid of God, of me and of yourself. 6 
You have misperceived or miscreated Us, and believe in what you have made. 7 You 
would not have done this if you were not afraid of your own thoughts. 8 The 
fearful <must> miscreate, because they misperceive creation. 9 When you 
miscreate you are in pain. 10 The cause and effect principle now becomes a real 
expediter, though only temporarily. 11 Actually, "Cause" is a term properly 
belonging to God, and His "Effect" is His Son. 12 This entails a set of Cause 
and Effect relationships totally different from those you introduce into 
miscreation. 13 The fundamental conflict in this world, then, is between 
creation and miscreation. 14 All fear is implicit in the second, and all love in 
the first. 15 The conflict is therefore one between love and fear.

T-2.VII.4. It has already been said that you believe you cannot control fear 
because you yourself made it, and your belief in it seems to render it out of 
your control. 2 Yet any attempt to resolve the error through attempting the 
mastery of fear is useless. 3 In fact, it asserts the power of fear by the very 
assumption that it need be mastered. 4 The true resolution rests entirely on 
mastery through love. 5 In the interim, however, the sense of conflict is 
inevitable, since you have placed yourself in a position where you believe in 
the power of what does not exist.

T-2.VII.5. Nothing and everything cannot coexist. 2 To believe in one is to deny 
the other. 3 Fear is really nothing and love is everything. 4 Whenever light 
enters darkness, the darkness is abolished. 5 What you believe is true for you. 
6 In this sense the separation <has> occurred, and to deny it is merely to use 
denial inappropriately. 7 However, to concentrate on error is only a further 
error. 8 The initial corrective procedure is to recognize temporarily that there 
is a problem, but only as an indication that immediate correction is needed. 9 
This establishes a state of mind in which the Atonement can be accepted without 
delay. 10 It should be emphasized, however, that ultimately no compromise is 
possible between everything and nothing. 11 Time is essentially a device by 
which all compromise in this respect can be given up p32. 12 It only seems to be 
abolished by degrees, because time itself involves intervals that do not exist. 
13 Miscreation made this necessary as a corrective device. 14 The statement "For 
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life" needs only one 
slight correction to be meaningful in this context; "He gave it <to> His only 
begotten Son."

T-2.VII.6. It should especially be noted that God has only <one> Son. 2 If all 
His creations are His Sons, every one must be an integral part of the whole 
Sonship. 3 The Sonship in its Oneness transcends the sum of its parts. 4 
However, this is obscured as long as any of its parts is missing. 5 That is why 
the conflict cannot ultimately be resolved until all the parts of the Sonship 
have returned. 6 Only then can the meaning of wholeness in the true sense be 
understood. 7 Any part of the Sonship can believe in error or incompleteness if 
he so chooses. 8 However, if he does so, he is believing in the existence of 
nothingness. 9 The correction of this error is the Atonement.

T-2.VII.7. I have already briefly spoken about readiness, but some additional 
points might be helpful here. 2 Readiness is only the prerequisite for 
accomplishment. 3 The two should not be confused. 4 As soon as a state of 
readiness occurs, there is usually some degree of desire to accomplish, but it 
is by no means necessarily undivided. 5 The state does not imply more than a 
potential for a change of mind. 6 Confidence cannot develop fully until mastery 
has been accomplished. 7 We have already attempted to correct the fundamental 
error that fear can be mastered, and have emphasized that the only real mastery 
is through love. 8 Readiness is only the beginning of confidence. 9 You may 
think this implies that an enormous amount of time is necessary between 
readiness and mastery, but let me remind you that time and space are under my 
control.




VIII. The Meaning of the Last Judgment

T-2.VIII.1. One of the ways in which you can correct the magic-miracle confusion 
is to remember that you did not create yourself. 2 You are apt to forget this 
when you become egocentric, and this puts you in a position where a belief in 
magic is virtually inevitable. p33 3 Your will to create was given you by your 
Creator, Who was expressing the same Will in His creation. 4 Since creative 
ability rests in the mind, everything you create is necessarily a matter of 
will. 5 It also follows that whatever you alone make is real in your own sight, 
though not in the Mind of God. 6 This basic distinction leads directly into the 
real meaning of the Last Judgment.

T-2.VIII.2. The Last Judgment is one of the most threatening ideas in your 
thinking. 2 This is because you do not understand it. 3 Judgment is not an 
attribute of God. 4 It was brought into being only after the separation, when it 
became one of the many learning devices to be built into the overall plan. 5 
Just as the separation occurred over millions of years, the Last Judgment will 
extend over a similarly long period, and perhaps an even longer one. 6 Its 
length can, however, be greatly shortened by miracles, the device for shortening 
but not abolishing time. 7 If a sufficient number become truly miracle-minded, 
this shortening process can be virtually immeasurable. 8 It is essential, 
however, that you free yourself from fear quickly, because you must emerge from 
the conflict if you are to bring peace to other minds.

T-2.VIII.3. The Last Judgment is generally thought of as a procedure undertaken 
by God. 2 Actually it will be undertaken by my brothers with my help. 3 It is a 
final healing rather than a meting out of punishment, however much you may think 
that punishment is deserved. 4 Punishment is a concept totally opposed to right-
mindedness, and the aim of the Last Judgment is to restore right-mindedness to 
you. 5 The Last Judgment might be called a process of right evaluation. 6 It 
simply means that everyone will finally come to understand what is worthy and 
what is not. 7 After this, the ability to choose can be directed rationally. 8 
Until this distinction is made, however, the vacillations between free and 
imprisoned will cannot but continue.

T-2.VIII.4. The first step toward freedom involves a sorting out of the false 
from the true. 2 This is a process of separation in the constructive sense, and 
reflects the true meaning of the Apocalypse. 3 Everyone will ultimately look 
upon his own creations and choose to preserve only what is good, just as God 
Himself looked upon what He had created and knew that it was good. 4 At this 
point, the mind can begin to look with love on its own creations because of 
their worthiness. 5 At the same time the mind will inevitably disown its 
miscreations which, without belief, will no longer exist. p34

T-2.VIII.5. The term "Last Judgment" is frightening not only because it has been 
projected onto God, but also because of the association of "last" with death. 2 
This is an outstanding example of upside-down perception. 3 If the meaning of 
the Last Judgment is objectively examined, it is quite apparent that it is 
really the doorway to life. 4 No one who lives in fear is really alive. 5 Your 
own last judgment cannot be directed toward yourself, because you are not your 
own creation. 6 You can, however, apply it meaningfully and at any time to 
everything you have made, and retain in your memory only what is creative and 
good. 7 This is what your right-mindedness cannot but dictate. 8 The purpose of 
time is solely to "give you time" to achieve this judgment. 9 It is your own 
perfect judgment of your own perfect creations. 10 When everything you retain is 
lovable, there is no reason for fear to remain with you. 11 This is your part in 
the Atonement. p35






Chapter 3.

THE INNOCENT PERCEPTION

I. Atonement without Sacrifice

T-3.I.1. A further point must be perfectly clear before any residual fear still 
associated with miracles can disappear. 2 The crucifixion did not establish the 
Atonement; the resurrection did. 3 Many sincere Christians have misunderstood 
this. 4 No one who is free of the belief in scarcity could possibly make this 
mistake. 5 If the crucifixion is seen from an upside-down point of view, it does 
appear as if God permitted and even encouraged one of His Sons to suffer because 
he was good. 6 This particularly unfortunate interpretation, which arose out of 
projection, has led many people to be bitterly afraid of God. 7 Such anti-
religious concepts enter into many religions. 8 Yet the real Christian should 
pause and ask, "How could this be?" 9 Is it likely that God Himself would be 
capable of the kind of thinking which His Own words have clearly stated is 
unworthy of His Son?

T-3.I.2. The best defense, as always, is not to attack another's position, but 
rather to protect the truth. 2 It is unwise to accept any concept if you have to 
invert a whole frame of reference in order to justify it. 3 This procedure is 
painful in its minor applications and genuinely tragic on a wider scale. 4 
Persecution frequently results in an attempt to "justify" the terrible 
misperception that God Himself persecuted His Own Son on behalf of salvation. 5 
The very words are meaningless. 6 It has been particularly difficult to overcome 
this because, although the error itself is no harder to correct than any other, 
many have been unwilling to give it up in view of its prominent value as a 
defense. 7 In milder forms a parent says, "This hurts me more than it hurts 
you," and feels exonerated in beating a child. 8 Can you believe our Father 
really thinks this way? 9 It is so essential that all such thinking be dispelled 
that we must be sure that nothing of this kind remains in your mind. 10 I was 
not "punished" because <you> were bad. 11 The wholly benign lesson the Atonement 
teaches is lost if it is tainted with this kind of distortion in any form.

T-3.I.3. The statement "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord" is a misperception by 
which one assigns his own "evil" past to God. p36 2 The "evil" past has nothing 
to do with God. 3 He did not create it and He does not maintain it. 4 God does 
not believe in retribution. 5 His Mind does not create that way. 6 He does not 
hold your "evil" deeds against you. 7 Is it likely that He would hold them 
against me? 8 Be very sure that you recognize how utterly impossible this 
assumption is, and how entirely it arises from projection. 9 This kind of error 
is responsible for a host of related errors, including the belief that God 
rejected Adam and forced him out of the Garden of Eden. 10 It is also why you 
may believe from time to time that I am misdirecting you. 11 I have made every 
effort to use words that are almost impossible to distort, but it is always 
possible to twist symbols around if you wish.

T-3.I.4. Sacrifice is a notion totally unknown to God. 2 It arises solely from 
fear, and frightened people can be vicious. 3 Sacrificing in any way is a 
violation of my injunction that you should be merciful even as your Father in 
Heaven is merciful. 4 It has been hard for many Christians to realize that this 
applies to themselves. 5 Good teachers never terrorize their students. 6 To 
terrorize is to attack, and this results in rejection of what the teacher 
offers. 7 The result is learning failure.

T-3.I.5. I have been correctly referred to as "the lamb of God who taketh away 
the sins of the world," but those who represent the lamb as blood-stained do not 
understand the meaning of the symbol. 2 Correctly understood, it is a very 
simple symbol that speaks of my innocence. 3 The lion and the lamb lying down 
together symbolize that strength and innocence are not in conflict, but 
naturally live in peace. 4 "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see 
God" is another way of saying the same thing. 5 A pure mind knows the truth and 
this is its strength. 6 It does not confuse destruction with innocence because 
it associates innocence with strength, not with weakness.

T-3.I.6. Innocence is incapable of sacrificing anything, because the innocent 
mind has everything and strives only to protect its wholeness. 2 It cannot 
project. 3 It can only honor other minds, because honor is the natural greeting 
of the truly loved to others who are like them. 4 The lamb "taketh away the sins 
of the world" in the sense that the state of innocence, or grace, is one in 
which the meaning of the Atonement is perfectly apparent. 5 The Atonement is 
entirely unambiguous. 6 It is perfectly clear because it exists in light. 7 Only 
the attempts to shroud it in darkness have made it inaccessible to those who do 
not choose to see. p37

T-3.I.7. The Atonement itself radiates nothing but truth. 2 It therefore 
epitomizes harmlessness and sheds only blessing. 3 It could not do this if it 
arose from anything but perfect innocence. 4 Innocence is wisdom because it is 
unaware of evil, and evil does not exist. 5 It is, however, perfectly aware of 
everything that is true. 6 The resurrection demonstrated that nothing can 
destroy truth. 7 Good can withstand any form of evil, as light abolishes forms 
of darkness. 8 The Atonement is therefore the perfect lesson. 9 It is the final 
demonstration that all the other lessons I taught are true. 10 If you can accept 
this one generalization now, there will be no need to learn from many smaller 
lessons. 11 You are released from all errors if you believe this.

T-3.I.8. The innocence of God is the true state of the mind of His Son. 2 In 
this state your mind knows God, for God is not symbolic; He is Fact. 3 Knowing 
His Son as he is, you realize that the Atonement, not sacrifice, is the only 
appropriate gift for God's altar, where nothing except perfection belongs. 4 The 
understanding of the innocent is truth. 5 That is why their altars are truly 
radiant.




II. Miracles as True Perception

T-3.II.1. I have stated that the basic concepts referred to in this course are 
not matters of degree. 2 Certain fundamental concepts cannot be understood in 
terms of opposites. 3 It is impossible to conceive of light and darkness or 
everything and nothing as joint possibilities. 4 They are all true or all false. 
5 It is essential that you realize your thinking will be erratic until a firm 
commitment to one or the other is made. 6 A firm commitment to darkness or 
nothingness, however, is impossible. 7 No one has ever lived who has not 
experienced <some> light and <some> thing. 8 No one, therefore, is able to deny 
truth totally, even if he thinks he can.

T-3.II.2. Innocence is not a partial attribute. 2 It is not real <until> it is 
total. 3 The partly innocent are apt to be quite foolish at times. 4 It is not 
until their innocence becomes a viewpoint with universal application that it 
becomes wisdom. 5 Innocent or true perception means that you never misperceive 
and always see truly. 6 More simply, it means that you never see what does not 
exist, and always see what does.

T-3.II.3. When you lack confidence in what someone will do, you are attesting to 
your belief that he is not in his right mind. 2 This is hardly a miracle-based 
frame of reference. p38 3 It also has the disastrous effect of denying the power 
of the miracle. 4 The miracle perceives everything as it is. 5 If nothing but 
the truth exists, right-minded seeing cannot see anything but perfection. 6 I 
have said that only what God creates or what you create with the same Will has 
any real existence. 7 This, then, is all the innocent can see. 8 They do not 
suffer from distorted perception.

T-3.II.4. You are afraid of God's Will because you have used your own mind, 
which He created in the likeness of His Own, to miscreate. 2 The mind can 
miscreate only when it believes it is not free. 3 An "imprisoned" mind is not 
free because it is possessed, or held back, by itself. 4 It is therefore 
limited, and the will is not free to assert itself. 5 To be one is to be of one 
mind or will. 6 When the Will of the Sonship and the Father are One, their 
perfect accord is Heaven.

T-3.II.5. Nothing can prevail against a Son of God who commends his spirit into 
the Hands of his Father. 2 By doing this the mind awakens from its sleep and 
remembers its Creator. 3 All sense of separation disappears. 4 The Son of God is 
part of the Holy Trinity, but the Trinity Itself is One. 5 There is no confusion 
within Its Levels, because They are of one Mind and one Will. 6 This single 
purpose creates perfect integration and establishes the peace of God. 7 Yet this 
vision can be perceived only by the truly innocent. 8 Because their hearts are 
pure, the innocent defend true perception instead of defending themselves 
against it. 9 Understanding the lesson of the Atonement they are without the 
wish to attack, and therefore they see truly. 10 This is what the Bible means 
when it says, "When he shall appear (or be perceived) we shall be like him, for 
we shall see him as he is."

T-3.II.6. The way to correct distortions is to withdraw your faith in them and 
invest it only in what is true. 2 You cannot make untruth true. 3 If you are 
willing to accept what is true in everything you perceive, you let it be true 
for you. 4 Truth overcomes all error, and those who live in error and emptiness 
can never find lasting solace. 5 If you perceive truly you are cancelling out 
misperceptions in yourself and in others simultaneously. 6 Because you see them 
as they are, you offer them your acceptance of their truth so they can accept it 
for themselves. 7 This is the healing that the miracle induces. p39




III. Perception versus Knowledge

T-3.III.1. We have been emphasizing perception, and have said very little about 
knowledge as yet. 2 This is because perception must be straightened out before 
you can know anything. 3 To know is to be certain. 4 Uncertainty means that you 
do not know. 5 Knowledge is power because it is certain, and certainty is 
strength. 6 Perception is temporary. 7 As an attribute of the belief in space 
and time, it is subject to either fear or love. 8 Misperceptions produce fear 
and true perceptions foster love, but neither brings certainty because all 
perception varies. 9 That is why it is not knowledge. 10 True perception is the 
basis for knowledge, but knowing is the affirmation of truth and beyond all 
perceptions.

T-3.III.2. All your difficulties stem from the fact that you do not recognize 
yourself, your brother or God. 2 To recognize means to "know again," implying 
that you knew before. 3 You can see in many ways because perception involves 
interpretation, and this means that it is not whole or consistent. 4 The 
miracle, being a way of perceiving, is not knowledge. 5 It is the right answer 
to a question, but you do not question when you know. 6 Questioning illusions is 
the first step in undoing them. 7 The miracle, or the right answer, corrects 
them. 8 Since perceptions change, their dependence on time is obvious. 9 How you 
perceive at any given time determines what you do, and actions must occur in 
time. 10 Knowledge is timeless, because certainty is not questionable. 11 You 
know when you have ceased to ask questions.

T-3.III.3. The questioning mind perceives itself in time, and therefore looks 
for future answers. 2 The closed mind believes the future and the present will 
be the same. 3 This establishes a seemingly stable state that is usually an 
attempt to counteract an underlying fear that the future will be worse than the 
present. 4 This fear inhibits the tendency to question at all.

T-3.III.4. True vision is the natural perception of spiritual sight, but it is 
still a correction rather than a fact. 2 Spiritual sight is symbolic, and 
therefore not a device for knowing. 3 It is, however, a means of right 
perception, which brings it into the proper domain of the miracle. 4 A "vision 
of God" would be a miracle rather than a revelation. 5 The fact that perception 
is involved at all removes the experience from the realm of knowledge. 6 That is 
why visions, however holy, do not last.

T-3.III.5. The Bible tells you to know yourself, or to be certain. 2 Certainty 
is always of God. p40 3 When you love someone you have perceived him as he is, 
and this makes it possible for you to know him. 4 Until you first perceive him 
as he is you cannot know him. 5 While you ask questions about him you are 
clearly implying that you do not know God. 6 Certainty does not require action. 
7 When you say you are acting on the basis of knowledge, you are really 
confusing knowledge with perception. 8 Knowledge provides the strength for 
creative thinking, but not for right doing. 9 Perception, miracles and doing are 
closely related. 10 Knowledge is the result of revelation and induces only 
thought. 11 Even in its most spiritualized form perception involves the body. 12 
Knowledge comes from the altar within and is timeless because it is certain. 13 
To perceive the truth is not the same as to know it.

T-3.III.6. Right perception is necessary before God can communicate directly to 
His altars, which He established in His Sons. 2 There He can communicate His 
certainty, and His knowledge will bring peace without question. 3 God is not a 
stranger to His Sons, and His Sons are not strangers to each other. 4 Knowledge 
preceded both perception and time, and will ultimately replace them. 5 That is 
the real meaning of "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end," and "Before 
Abraham was I am." 6 Perception can and must be stabilized, but knowledge <is> 
stable. 7 "Fear God and keep His commandments" becomes "Know God and accept His 
certainty."

T-3.III.7. If you attack error in another, you will hurt yourself. 2 You cannot 
know your brother when you attack him. 3 Attack is always made upon a stranger. 
4 You are making him a stranger by misperceiving him, and so you cannot know 
him. 5 It is because you have made him a stranger that you are afraid of him. 6 
Perceive him correctly so that you can know him. 7 There are no strangers in 
God's creation. 8 To create as He created you can create only what you know, and 
therefore accept as yours. 9 God knows His children with perfect certainty. 10 
He created them by knowing them. 11 He recognizes them perfectly. 12 When they 
do not recognize each other, they do not recognize Him.




IV. Error and the Ego

T-3.IV.1. The abilities you now possess are only shadows of your real strength. 
2 All of your present functions are divided and open to question and doubt. 3 
This is because you are not certain how you will use them, and are therefore 
incapable of knowledge. p41 4 You are also incapable of knowledge because you 
can still perceive lovelessly. 5 Perception did not exist until the separation 
introduced degrees, aspects and intervals. 6 Spirit has no levels, and all 
conflict arises from the concept of levels. 7 Only the Levels of the Trinity are 
capable of unity. 8 The levels created by the separation cannot but conflict. 9 
This is because they are meaningless to each other.

T-3.IV.2. Consciousness, the level of perception, was the first split introduced 
into the mind after the separation, making the mind a perceiver rather than a 
creator. 2 Consciousness is correctly identified as the domain of the ego. 3 The 
ego is a wrong-minded attempt to perceive yourself as you wish to be, rather 
than as you are. 4 Yet you can know yourself only as you are, because that is 
all you can be sure of. 5 Everything else <is> open to question.

T-3.IV.3. The ego is the questioning aspect of the post-separation self, which 
was made rather than created. 2 It is capable of asking questions but not of 
perceiving meaningful answers, because these would involve knowledge and cannot 
be perceived. 3 The mind is therefore confused, because only One-mindedness can 
be without confusion. 4 A separated or divided mind <must> be confused. 5 It is 
necessarily uncertain about what it is. 6 It has to be in conflict because it is 
out of accord with itself. 7 This makes its aspects strangers to each other, and 
this is the essence of the fear-prone condition, in which attack is always 
possible. 8 You have every reason to feel afraid as you perceive yourself. 9 
This is why you cannot escape from fear until you realize that you did not and 
could not create yourself. 10 You can never make your misperceptions true, and 
your creation is beyond your own error. 11 That is why you must eventually 
choose to heal the separation.

T-3.IV.4. Right-mindedness is not to be confused with the knowing mind, because 
it is applicable only to right perception. 2 You can be right-minded or wrong-
minded, and even this is subject to degrees, clearly demonstrating that 
knowledge is not involved. 3 The term "right-mindedness" is properly used as the 
correction for "wrong-mindedness," and applies to the state of mind that induces 
accurate perception. 4 It is miracle-minded because it heals misperception, and 
this is indeed a miracle in view of how you perceive yourself.

T-3.IV.5. Perception always involves some misuse of mind, because it brings the 
mind into areas of uncertainty. 2 The mind is very active p42. 3 When it chooses 
to be separated it chooses to perceive. 4 Until then it wills only to know. 5 
Afterwards it can only choose ambiguously, and the only way out of ambiguity is 
clear perception. 6 The mind returns to its proper function only when it wills 
to know. 7 This places it in the service of spirit, where perception is changed. 
8 The mind chooses to divide itself when it chooses to make its own levels. 9 
But it could not entirely separate itself from spirit, because it is from spirit 
that it derives its whole power to make or create. 10 Even in miscreation the 
mind is affirming its Source, or it would merely cease to be. 11 This is 
impossible, because the mind belongs to spirit which God created and which is 
therefore eternal.

T-3.IV.6. The ability to perceive made the body possible, because you must 
perceive <something> and <with> something. 2 That is why perception involves an 
exchange or translation, which knowledge does not need. 3 The interpretative 
function of perception, a distorted form of creation, then permits you to 
interpret the body as yourself in an attempt to escape from the conflict you 
have induced. 4 Spirit, which knows, could not be reconciled with this loss of 
power, because it is incapable of darkness. 5 This makes spirit almost 
inaccessible to the mind and entirely inaccessible to the body. 6 Thereafter, 
spirit is perceived as a threat, because light abolishes darkness merely by 
showing you it is not there. 7 Truth will always overcome error in this way. 8 
This cannot be an active process of correction because, as I have already 
emphasized, knowledge does not do anything. 9 It can be perceived as an 
attacker, but it cannot attack. 10 What you perceive as its attack is your own 
vague recognition that knowledge can always be remembered, never having been 
destroyed.

T-3.IV.7. God and His creations remain in surety, and therefore know that no 
miscreation exists. 2 Truth cannot deal with errors that you want. 3 I was a man 
who remembered spirit and its knowledge. 4 As a man I did not attempt to 
counteract error with knowledge, but to correct error from the bottom up. 5 I 
demonstrated both the powerlessness of the body and the power of the mind. 6 By 
uniting my will with that of my Creator, I naturally remembered spirit and its 
real purpose. 7 I cannot unite your will with God's for you, but I can erase all 
misperceptions from your mind if you will bring it under my guidance. 8 Only 
your misperceptions stand in your way. 9 Without them your choice is certain. 10 
Sane perception induces sane choosing. 11 I cannot choose for you, but I can 
help you make your own right choice. p43 12 "Many are called but few are chosen" 
should be, "All are called but few choose to listen." 13 Therefore, they do not 
choose right. 14 The "chosen ones" are merely those who choose right sooner. 15 
Right minds can do this now, and they will find rest unto their souls. 16 God 
knows you only in peace, and this <is> your reality.




V. Beyond Perception

T-3.V.1. I have said that the abilities you possess are only shadows of your 
real strength, and that perception, which is inherently judgmental, was 
introduced only after the separation. 2 No one has been sure of anything since. 
3 I have also made it clear that the resurrection was the means for the return 
to knowledge, which was accomplished by the union of my will with the Father's. 
4 We can now establish a distinction that will clarify some of our subsequent 
statements.

T-3.V.2. Since the separation, the words "create" and "make" have become 
confused. 2 When you make something, you do so out of a specific sense of lack 
or need. 3 Anything made for a specific purpose has no true generalizability. 4 
When you make something to fill a perceived lack, you are tacitly implying that 
you believe in separation. 5 The ego has invented many ingenious thought systems 
for this purpose. 6 None of them is creative. 7 Inventiveness is wasted effort 
even in its most ingenious form. 8 The highly specific nature of invention is 
not worthy of the abstract creativity of God's creations.

T-3.V.3. Knowing, as we have already observed, does not lead to doing. 2 The 
confusion between your real creation and what you have made of yourself is so 
profound that it has become literally impossible for you to know anything. 3 
Knowledge is always stable, and it is quite evident that you are not. 4 
Nevertheless, you are perfectly stable as God created you. 5 In this sense, when 
your behavior is unstable, you are disagreeing with God's idea of your creation. 
6 You can do this if you choose, but you would hardly want to do it if you were 
in your right mind.

T-3.V.4. The fundamental question you continually ask yourself cannot properly 
be directed to yourself at all. 2 You keep asking what it is you are. 3 This 
implies that the answer is not only one you know, but is also one that is up to 
you to supply. 4 Yet you cannot perceive yourself correctly. p44 5 You have no 
image to be perceived. 6 The word "image" is always perception-related, and not 
a part of knowledge. 7 Images are symbolic and stand for something else. 8 The 
idea of "changing your image" recognizes the power of perception, but also 
implies that there is nothing stable to know.

T-3.V.5. Knowing is not open to interpretation. 2 You may try to "interpret" 
meaning, but this is always open to error because it refers to the <perception> 
of meaning. 3 Such incongruities are the result of attempts to regard yourself 
as separated and unseparated at the same time. 4 It is impossible to make so 
fundamental a confusion without increasing your overall confusion still further. 
5 Your mind may have become very ingenious, but as always happens when method 
and content are separated, it is utilized in a futile attempt to escape from an 
inescapable impasse. 6 Ingenuity is totally divorced from knowledge, because 
knowledge does not require ingenuity. 7 Ingenious thinking is <not> the truth 
that shall set you free, but you are free of the need to engage in it when you 
are willing to let it go.

T-3.V.6. Prayer is a way of asking for something. 2 It is the medium of 
miracles. 3 But the only meaningful prayer is for forgiveness, because those who 
have been forgiven have everything. 4 Once forgiveness has been accepted, prayer 
in the usual sense becomes utterly meaningless. 5 The prayer for forgiveness is 
nothing more than a request that you may be able to recognize what you already 
have. 6 In electing perception instead of knowledge, you placed yourself in a 
position where you could resemble your Father only by perceiving miraculously. 7 
You have lost the knowledge that you yourself are a miracle of God. 8 Creation 
is your Source and your only real function.

T-3.V.7. The statement "God created man in his own image and likeness" needs 
reinterpretation. 2 "Image" can be understood as "thought," and "likeness" as 
"of a like quality." 3 God did create spirit in His Own Thought and of a quality 
like to His Own. 4 There <is> nothing else. 5 Perception, on the other hand, is 
impossible without a belief in "more" and "less." 6 At every level it involves 
selectivity. 7 Perception is a continual process of accepting and rejecting, 
organizing and reorganizing, shifting and changing. 8 Evaluation is an essential 
part of perception, because judgments are necessary in order to select.

T-3.V.8. What happens to perceptions if there are no judgments and nothing but 
perfect equality? 2 Perception becomes impossible p45. 3 Truth can only be 
known. 4 All of it is equally true, and knowing any part of it is to know all of 
it. 5 Only perception involves partial awareness. 6 Knowledge transcends the 
laws governing perception, because partial knowledge is impossible. 7 It is all 
one and has no separate parts. 8 You who are really one with it need but know 
yourself and your knowledge is complete. 9 To know God's miracle is to know Him.

T-3.V.9. Forgiveness is the healing of the perception of separation. 2 Correct 
perception of your brother is necessary, because minds have chosen to see 
themselves as separate. 3 Spirit knows God completely. 4 That is its miraculous 
power. 5 The fact that each one has this power completely is a condition 
entirely alien to the world's thinking. 6 The world believes that if anyone has 
everything, there is nothing left. 7 But God's miracles are as total as His 
Thoughts because they <are> His Thoughts.

T-3.V.10. As long as perception lasts prayer has a place. 2 Since perception 
rests on lack, those who perceive have not totally accepted the Atonement and 
given themselves over to truth. 3 Perception is based on a separated state, so 
that anyone who perceives at all needs healing. 4 Communion, not prayer, is the 
natural state of those who know. 5 God and His miracle are inseparable. 6 How 
beautiful indeed are the Thoughts of God who live in His light! 7 Your worth is 
beyond perception because it is beyond doubt. 8 Do not perceive yourself in 
different lights. 9 Know yourself in the One Light where the miracle that is you 
is perfectly clear.




VI. Judgment and the Authority Problem

T-3.VI.1. We have already discussed the Last Judgment, but in insufficient 
detail. 2 After the Last Judgment there will be no more. 3 Judgment is symbolic 
because beyond perception there is no judgment. 4 When the Bible says "Judge not 
that ye be not judged," it means that if you judge the reality of others you 
will be unable to avoid judging your own.

T-3.VI.2. The choice to judge rather than to know is the cause of the loss of 
peace. 2 Judgment is the process on which perception but not knowledge rests. 3 
I have discussed this before in terms of the selectivity of perception, pointing 
out that evaluation is its obvious prerequisite. 4 Judgment always involves 
rejection. 5 It never emphasizes only the positive aspects of what is judged, 
whether in you or in others. p46 6 What has been perceived and rejected, or 
judged and found wanting, remains in your mind because it has been perceived. 7 
One of the illusions from which you suffer is the belief that what you judged 
against has no effect. 8 This cannot be true unless you also believe that what 
you judged against does not exist. 9 You evidently do not believe this, or you 
would not have judged against it. 10 In the end it does not matter whether your 
judgment is right or wrong. 11 Either way you are placing your belief in the 
unreal. 12 This cannot be avoided in any type of judgment, because it implies 
the belief that reality is yours to select <from.>

T-3.VI.3. You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes 
from meeting yourself and your brothers totally without judgment. 2 When you 
recognize what you are and what your brothers are, you will realize that judging 
them in any way is without meaning. 3 In fact, their meaning is lost to you 
precisely <because> you are judging them. 4 All uncertainty comes from the 
belief that you are under the coercion of judgment. 5 You do not need judgment 
to organize your life, and you certainly do not need it to organize yourself. 6 
In the presence of knowledge all judgment is automatically suspended, and this 
is the process that enables recognition to replace perception.

T-3.VI.4. You are very fearful of everything you have perceived but have refused 
to accept. 2 You believe that, because you have refused to accept it, you have 
lost control over it. 3 This is why you see it in nightmares, or in pleasant 
disguises in what seem to be your happier dreams. 4 Nothing that you have 
refused to accept can be brought into awareness. 5 It is not dangerous in 
itself, but you have made it seem dangerous to you.

T-3.VI.5. When you feel tired, it is because you have judged yourself as capable 
of being tired. 2 When you laugh at someone, it is because you have judged him 
as unworthy. 3 When you laugh at yourself you must laugh at others, if only 
because you cannot tolerate the idea of being more unworthy than they are. 4 All 
this makes you feel tired because it is essentially disheartening. 5 You are not 
really capable of being tired, but you are very capable of wearying yourself. 6 
The strain of constant judgment is virtually intolerable. 7 It is curious that 
an ability so debilitating would be so deeply cherished. 8 Yet if you wish to be 
the author of reality, you will insist on holding on to judgment. 9 You will 
also regard judgment with fear, believing that it will someday be used against 
you. p47 10 This belief can exist only to the extent that you believe in the 
efficacy of judgment as a weapon of defense for your own authority.

T-3.VI.6. God offers only mercy. 2 Your words should reflect only mercy, because 
that is what you have received and that is what you should give. 3 Justice is a 
temporary expedient, or an attempt to teach you the meaning of mercy. 4 It is 
judgmental only because you are capable of injustice.

T-3.VI.7. I have spoken of different symptoms, and at that level there is almost 
endless variation. 2 There is, however, only one cause for all of them: the 
authority problem. 3 This <is> "the root of all evil." 4 Every symptom the ego 
makes involves a contradiction in terms, because the mind is split between the 
ego and the Holy Spirit, so that whatever the ego makes is incomplete and 
contradictory. 5 This untenable position is the result of the authority problem 
which, because it accepts the one inconceivable thought as its premise, can 
produce only ideas that are inconceivable.

T-3.VI.8. The issue of authority is really a question of authorship. 2 When you 
have an authority problem, it is always because you believe you are the author 
of yourself and project your delusion onto others. 3 You then perceive the 
situation as one in which others are literally fighting you for your authorship. 
4 This is the fundamental error of all those who believe they have usurped the 
power of God. 5 This belief is very frightening to them, but hardly troubles 
God. 6 He is, however, eager to undo it, not to punish His children, but only 
because He knows that it makes them unhappy. 7 God's creations are given their 
true Authorship, but you prefer to be anonymous when you choose to separate 
yourself from your Author. 8 Being uncertain of your true Authorship, you 
believe that your creation was anonymous. 9 This leaves you in a position where 
it sounds meaningful to believe that you created yourself. 10 The dispute over 
authorship has left such uncertainty in your mind that it may even doubt whether 
you really exist at all.

T-3.VI.9. Only those who give over all desire to reject can know that their own 
rejection is impossible. 2 You have not usurped the power of God, but you <have> 
lost it. 3 Fortunately, to lose something does not mean that it has gone. 4 It 
merely means that you do not remember where it is. 5 Its existence does not 
depend on your ability to identify it, or even to place it. 6 It is possible to 
look on reality without judgment and merely know that it is there. p48

T-3.VI.10. Peace is a natural heritage of spirit. 2 Everyone is free to refuse 
to accept his inheritance, but he is not free to establish what his inheritance 
is. 3 The problem everyone must decide is the fundamental question of 
authorship. 4 All fear comes ultimately, and sometimes by way of very devious 
routes, from the denial of Authorship. 5 The offense is never to God, but only 
to those who deny Him. 6 To deny His Authorship is to deny yourself the reason 
for your peace, so that you see yourself only in segments. 7 This strange 
perception <is> the authority problem.

T-3.VI.11. There is no one who does not feel that he is imprisoned in some way. 
2 If this is the result of his own free will he must regard his will as not 
free, or the circular reasoning in this position would be quite apparent. 3 Free 
will must lead to freedom. 4 Judgment always imprisons because it separates 
segments of reality by the unstable scales of desire. 5 Wishes are not facts. 6 
To wish is to imply that willing is not sufficient. 7 Yet no one in his right 
mind believes that what is wished is as real as what is willed. 8 Instead of 
"Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven" say, "<Will> ye first the Kingdom of 
Heaven," and you have said, "I know what I am and I accept my own inheritance."




VII. Creating versus the Self-Image

T-3.VII.1. Every system of thought must have a starting point. 2 It begins with 
either a making or a creating, a difference we have already discussed. 3 Their 
resemblance lies in their power as foundations. 4 Their difference lies in what 
rests upon them. 5 Both are cornerstones for systems of belief by which one 
lives. 6 It is a mistake to believe that a thought system based on lies is weak. 
7 Nothing made by a child of God is without power. 8 It is essential to realize 
this, because otherwise you will be unable to escape from the prison you have 
made.

T-3.VII.2. You cannot resolve the authority problem by depreciating the power of 
your mind. 2 To do so is to deceive yourself, and this will hurt you because you 
really understand the strength of the mind. 3 You also realize that you cannot 
weaken it, any more than you can weaken God. 4 The "devil" is a frightening 
concept because he seems to be extremely powerful and extremely active. 5 He is 
perceived as a force in combat with God, battling Him for possession of His 
creations. 6 The devil deceives by lies, and builds kingdoms in which everything 
is in direct opposition to God. p49 7 Yet he attracts men rather than repels 
them, and they are willing to "sell" him their souls in return for gifts of no 
real worth. 8 This makes absolutely no sense.

T-3.VII.3. We have discussed the fall or separation before, but its meaning must 
be clearly understood. 2 The separation is a system of thought real enough in 
time, though not in eternity. 3 All beliefs are real to the believer. 4 The 
fruit of only one tree was "forbidden" in the symbolic garden. 5 But God could 
not have forbidden it, or it could not have <been> eaten. 6 If God knows His 
children, and I assure you that He does, would He have put them in a position 
where their own destruction was possible? 7 The "forbidden tree" was named the 
"tree of knowledge." 8 Yet God created knowledge and gave it freely to His 
creations. 9 The symbolism here has been given many interpretations, but you may 
be sure that any interpretation that sees either God or His creations as capable 
of destroying Their Own purpose is in error.

T-3.VII.4. Eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge is a symbolic expression 
for usurping the ability for self-creating. 2 This is the only sense in which 
God and His creations are not co-creators. 3 The belief that they are is 
implicit in the "self-concept," or the tendency of the self to make an image of 
itself. 4 Images are perceived, not known. 5 Knowledge cannot deceive, but 
perception can. 6 You can perceive yourself as self-creating, but you cannot do 
more than believe it. 7 You cannot make it true. 8 And, as I said before, when 
you finally perceive correctly you can only be glad that you cannot. 9 Until 
then, however, the belief that you can is the foundation stone in your thought 
system, and all your defenses are used to attack ideas that might bring it to 
light. 10 You still believe you are an image of your own making. 11 Your mind is 
split with the Holy Spirit on this point, and there is no resolution while you 
believe the one thing that is literally inconceivable. 12 That is why you cannot 
create and are filled with fear about what you make.

T-3.VII.5. The mind can make the belief in separation very real and very 
fearful, and this belief <is> the "devil." 2 It is powerful, active, destructive 
and clearly in opposition to God, because it literally denies His Fatherhood. 3 
Look at your life and see what the devil has made. 4 But realize that this 
making will surely dissolve in the light of truth, because its foundation is a 
lie. 5 Your creation by God is the only Foundation that cannot be shaken, 
because the light is in it. p50 6 Your starting point is truth, and you must 
return to your Beginning. 7 Much has been seen since then, but nothing has 
really happened. 8 Your Self is still in peace, even though your mind is in 
conflict. 9 You have not yet gone back far enough, and that is why you become so 
fearful. 10 As you approach the Beginning, you feel the fear of the destruction 
of your thought system upon you as if it were the fear of death. 11 There is no 
death, but there <is> a belief in death.

T-3.VII.6. The branch that bears no fruit will be cut off and will wither away. 
2 Be glad! 3 The light will shine from the true Foundation of life, and your own 
thought system will stand corrected. 4 It cannot stand otherwise. 5 You who fear 
salvation are choosing death. 6 Life and death, light and darkness, knowledge 
and perception, are irreconcilable. 7 To believe that they can be reconciled is 
to believe that God and His Son can <not.> 8 Only the oneness of knowledge is 
free of conflict. 9 Your Kingdom is not of this world because it was given you 
from beyond this world. 10 Only in this world is the idea of an authority 
problem meaningful. 11 The world is not left by death but by truth, and truth 
can be known by all those for whom the Kingdom was created, and for whom it 
waits. p51