Glossary of Terms
from A Course in Miracles

Thoughts of anger. The source of our entire perception of the world. We entertain attack thoughts, then project them onto the world (see projection), and then interpret the world as wanting to take vengeance on us for our attack on it. A term found only in the Workbook. See (CE W-22.1).

The ego’s desire for guilt, which is the unconscious motivation behind all the ego does, including all its uses of the body. Guilt is the ego’s only need (see CE T-15.VII.10:5). It finds guilt attractive because guilt preserves it, confirming its foundation of sin and producing its essence of fear. The attraction of guilt makes God and love seem repulsive. Because we find guilt intolerable, the ego promises to relieve guilt, but does so in ways that actually maintain and increase it (see CE T-15.VII.4:1). For instance, the ego urges us to relieve our guilt by attacking others, projecting guilt onto others, and looking for sin in others. If we simply realized that these things only increase guilt, we would let them go. This is why we must look at our unconscious attraction to guilt see CE T-15.VII.3). The solution to the attraction of guilt is the holy instant.

Conventional: Our problem with other people wielding authority over us, stemming from our desire for self-determination.

ACIM: Our problem with the fact that God is our Author, and our attempt to author ourselves, to usurp God’s power, throne, place or function. This attempt, which we believed seriously attacked or killed God, is the hidden source of all guilt. In the separation, we rejected His role as Creator and tried to be creator in His stead. We tried to create our own self and even to create God (see CE T-21.II.10:4). However, we only succeeded in making a self-image, the ego. Now we believe we can change ourselves (a form of creating ourselves) by modifying our image. A conventional authority problem results from projecting this belief (in self-creation) onto another person, which leads us to fear that he or she can take our function of self-creation away from us and can exercise creative power over us, can modify us against our will. All of this, though, is illusion. Since we did not author ourselves we have no power over what we are, nor do others. We have not usurped God’s power and have no cause for guilt (see “I am as God created me”). See CE T-4.II.1-2, CE T-3.X.8-9:5, CE T-11.I.2.

That which exists, the “substance” or is-ness of which something is made, the real essence of something. All being is in God, Who created us by sharing His Being with us. Our being is therefore pure spirit, without form or limit. Being is absolutely changeless and certain, calm and unshakable. At the same time, however, being is inherently relational. By nature, it must give or extend outward. It gives all of itself away all the time, thereby increasing its fullness. Being therefore is both static (changeless) and dynamic (extending and increasing). You could say it is statically dynamic. This is one example of the collapse of conventional dichotomies that occurs in the state of being. Another example is that, in this state, having and being are not different; what we have is what we are (see having/being).

1. The ego made the body as proof that we really are separate, and that our separateness is outside our power of choice, being enforced by an objective wall of flesh. As a result, deep down we hate the body, blaming it for all the pain that separation brings. We also hate it because we think it is not good enough to be our house.
2. The ego uses the body as a device to reinforce itself. It does so by using it to attack others and to seek physical pleasure. It adorns the body to make itself feel special (see specialness) and to attract special love partners (see special relationship). It uses the body’s sickness, aging, and death to “prove” to us that we are frail and guilty and that God is dead.
3. The Holy Spirit sees the body as neutral, as having no power over the mind. He sees it as a means not an end, a “means of communication” (CE T-6.VII.A.3:3, CE T-8.VI.2:1, CE T-17.III.7:1; see CE T-8.VI), an instrument for reaching our brothers with love, forgiveness, and healing. Thus it can be a useful tool here.
4. Yet because it is an illusion, when we awaken in Heaven it will be gone, for there is no form in Heaven.

A bridge that spans the distance between our awareness and God, between illusions and truth, perception and knowledge. This bridge is described as the Holy Spirit, Christ’s vision, peace and forgiveness, among other things. It is described as being built by us, and also built by God. To be literal, it is a transition in our perspective on reality (see CE T-16.VI.7:1). It is described both as the transition to true perception, and also as the transition to knowledge, as the final step in which God will bridge the gap Himself. See CE T-16.III.7:9-8, CE T-16.VI, CE T-17.II.2, CE T-28.III.5:3-6.

Bringing our dark, secret, egoic beliefs out of unconsciousness and into full awareness to meet the light of the Holy Spirit, of reason. There our illusions will be dispelled, for light automatically dispels darkness (see CE T-2.III.2:3). “To bring to” means “to see from the perspective of” or “see in the light of.” In other words, that to which a thing is “brought” (truth, light) has authority over the thing which is “brought” (illusions, darkness), authority to define that thing in its image. We have brought truth to illusions—seen truth from the perspective of illusions (see CE W-107.5:4-5). Now we must reverse that. Our job is not to bring the light, which would imply that we are separate from the light and it is up to us to make or earn it. Our job is simply to bring our darkness to the Holy Spirit, and it is He Who brings the light. We have hidden the ego’s darkness behind walls of denial, which the Course describes metaphorically as dark doors in our minds, guarded by sentinels of darkness (see CE T-14.VIII.2:5, CE T-14.VIII.8:4). Since darkness vanishes automatically in light, it is not our darkness that keeps us from God, but the act of hiding it behind the dark doors. Once we have brought it to light we can fulfill our function of bringing light to the darkness of the world, just as the Holy Spirit does (see CE T-18.III.8:1-3). See CE T-14.IX.8:1-11, CE T-14.X.1-3, CE T-14.VIII.4.

One who is like you and shares the same Father. All members of the Sonship, which includes all living things, are brothers. Sometimes refers specifically to our holy relationship partner, especially in chapters 17-22 in the Text. By calling us all “brothers,” the Course is filling a traditional word that refers only to male siblings with a profound and non-traditional content that embraces all reality (see he, him). The term “brother” in the Course implies that underneath our apparent differences of gender, culture, age, status and even species, we are all absolutely the same. It also implies that underneath our worldly relationships as parents, children, enemies and strangers, we are really only brothers to each other—equal offspring of the same Father. “…you have come with but one purpose; that you learn you love your brother with a brother’s love. And as a brother, must his Father be the same as yours, as he is like yourself in truth” (CE T-31.II.11:5-6).

1. God’s creations, which are completely non-physical. The Sonship, which is one but is composed of an infinite number of parts or Sons (see CE W-WI.11.1:1).
2. Our own creations in Heaven, which we create in unison with God and all our brothers and which complete us and establish our own fatherhood. Creating them is how we increase the Kingdom and give thanks to God for our own creation. In fact, our song of love to God is simultaneously our song of creating in His Name. These creations in turn, pour out their eternal gratitude to us for giving them the gift of life. They call to us from Heaven to return to them. They, like everything in Heaven, are pure spirit, formless, timeless and perfect (for the one direct description of what our creations are, see CE T-24.VII.7:1-2). Note: They are not our extensions or thoughts of love in this world (see CE T-17.IV.2:1).

See creation. See CE T-8.V.4-6:5.

The symbol of the ego (CE T-13.II.6:1). What the ego does to every Son of God who believes in it.

1. The ego devises a world which constantly crucifies us in little ways and finally kills us (see CE T-13.I.1:8-4). We assume God is using the world to crucify us for our sins. Yet we dream the world in order to crucify ourselves for our sins.
2. The real crucifixion is inner, not outer (CE T-13.III.7:4-6). It is the condition of anguish which results from our guilt, and from the ego trying to crucify our true Self, the Son of God within us.
3. We try to crucify others, yet this is precisely what leads to #1 and #2 above.
4. The crucifixion of Jesus.

Christian: A ritualistic transaction with God in which Jesus made himself the sacrifice for our sins and thus paid the debt of our sins.

ACIM: An extreme teaching example of true forgiveness, in which Jesus underwent an intensified version of the crucifixion we all experience, yet did not perceive it as real. The events of the crucifixion themselves had no redemptive value (see CE T-3.III.1:2, CE T-14.VII.9:1); it was how he perceived and responded to them that led to the resurrection. His response demonstrated that no attack—no matter how extreme (see no order of difficulty in miracles)—can truly hurt or kill us, the Son of God. He demonstrated that instead of responding with anger and retaliation we should teach only love (see CE T-6.I.5-19:4).

See Atonement.

A series of lessons planned to help you achieve a learning goal. The ego has a curriculum and so does the Holy Spirit. For both curricula the learning goal is to teach you who you are. Yet they are complete opposites, based on opposing notions of who you are. Following the ego’s conflicting, impossible curriculum has made you such a depressed, handicapped learner that you need a special curriculum with a special Teacher (the Holy Spirit). The learning goal of His curriculum is forgiveness. This will lead to the final step which is beyond the scope of the curriculum. He will gear the curriculum to your very individual needs. Yet it is not up to you to establish the curriculum nor even your particular form of it (your particular spiritual path). A Course in Miracles portrays itself as one form of the Holy Spirit’s universal curriculum. See course, the. See CE T-8.I.6-7, CE T-12.VIII.5:2-13.

The central illusion, the idea that eternal life can be lessened, compromised, can lose vitality and be extinguished. The single idea behind all forms of pain, lack, or limitation. The most stark example of this idea is death of the body. Death seems to be the final power in this world, for it overpowers all things in the end (see CE W-163.2).

1. The ego tells us that if death is god in this world, then death must issue from God. It must be His punishment for our sins. Therefore, says the ego, we should fear Him.
2. Yet physical death is our punishment of ourselves. We made it ourselves (CE T-1.23.1:2) and are attracted to it.
3. We made it to give ourselves justification for the fear of God. For the ego wants us to fear Him and stay away from Him, since it fears disappearing in God’s unlimited Life.
4. This fear of God’s Life makes the ego want to conquer His threat. It does this by apparently killing His Son, which “proves” that it has defeated, even killed, the God of Life (see CE W-163.5, CE W-163.7).
5. Death, however, is a complete illusion, for life, spirit, cannot be lessened, killed, or changed in any way. Bodies do cease to function, but do not die since they were not alive in the first place.
6. Since death is not real, physical death does not accomplish anything. It is not a way to escape the pain of life nor a way to get to Heaven (see CE T-6.VII.1).
7. When we realize that death does not exist, we will be able to lay our bodies down voluntarily when our job here is done (see CE W-294.1:5-10). Or, as with Jesus, our bodies will simply vanish.

See CE T-19.IV.C.1-3:7, CE M-27.

1. Our physical defense against outer attacks. This backfires, for it affirms that the attacks are real and that we can be injured (see CE W-153.1-5). Further, the idea of self-defense is simply an excuse to attack and so leads to guilt (see attack). 2. Closely related to this outer defense is the ego’s system of psychological defense (the primary one being projection), which also backfires, for it too affirms that what it defends against—internal guilt—is real. 3. The ego’s true purpose behind these defenses is to do precisely what they do: reinforce the reality of outer attack and inner guilt. Reinforcing our fear and guilt is how the ego defends its “reality” and so defends itself against God. 4. Yet to keep our allegiance—to defend itself from being relinquished—it must also offer us “gifts.” Its chief defense in this sense (its most boasted gift) is the special relationship (see CE T-17.IV.5-6:1). 5. The Atonement is a defense, which does not attack and does not make real what it defends against (see CE T-2.V.1-2). For it protects us from illusions by showing us their unreality. See denial.

Conventional: Being without a means of protecting yourself from attack, and so being completely vulnerable to harm.

ACIM: The attitude and response that stems from realizing that you cannot be attacked or harmed, that you are invulnerable. It thus comes from strength and leads to safety. Ironically, defensiveness is what lays you open to attack by affirming that attack is real and you are vulnerable. See defense and invulnerability. See CE W-153, CE M-4.VI.

Conventional: A psychological term for a system of exceedingly faulty beliefs about reality that persists despite obvious and overwhelming proof to the contrary.

ACIM: The ego’s thought system, which is fixed, tightly organized, and apparently stable, yet which is inherently vulnerable because it flies in the face of reality and would fall apart under real scrutiny. The delusions in this system include the idea that we can actually attack God and tear away part of Him (CE T-5.VI.5:4-6) and that we made our own father (CE T-11.I.2:4).

A refusal to admit the truth of something. The psychological defense of putting something unwanted out of one’s mind. The “decision not to know” (CE T-14.I.3:2).

1. The ego’s thought system is a denial of reality, a refusal to admit the truth. This submerges our awareness of reality deep in the unconscious mind (see CE T-11.II.1:3-6).
2. We then deny the raw hatred, guilt and fear we feel inside (which comes from our denial of truth). This very concealment affirms that we still believe in these emotions. This more common use of the word is found only rarely in the Course.
3. The proper use of denial is not to conceal illusions, but to calmly refuse to admit that they are true, to correct our belief in their reality (see CE T-2.III.1:8-2, CE T-2.III.10:1-6).
4. And since illusions are denials of truth, “The task of the miracle worker thus becomes to deny the denial of truth” (CE T-12.II.6:5).

See dissociation. See CE T-7.VI.1-2.

Conventional: a supernatural being that opposes God and is the cause of all that is wrong in the world.

ACIM: the ego, the self we made (and think we have become) that opposes God and is the sole cause of all suffering and “evil.” See CE T-3.XI.4:1-5, CE T-3.XI.9.

To separate something from awareness as a mechanism of ego defense. A “decision to forget” (CE T-10.II.1:2).

1. The mechanism by which the separation occurred (see CE T-6.II.3:1-4). The separation was not a physical parting, but a mental decision to forget.
2. The ego then dissociated from God’s Answer: the Holy Spirit and His thought system (see CE T-14.IX.4-5:4). “Dissociation is a distorted process of thinking whereby two systems of belief [the ego’s and the Holy Spirit’s] which cannot coexist are both maintained.” (CE T-14.IX.4:3). They are maintained by keeping them in different compartments of the mind. When they are brought together, one must dispel the other (see bringing darkness to light).
3. The ego even uses dissociation to keep contradictory goals in its own thought system from coming into contact with each other (see CE T-15.I.5:5).

See denial. See CE T-10.II.1.

Conventional: An imaginary experience the mind has when it loses consciousness of “reality” (as in sleep), or when it hopes for something better than “reality” (as in “hopes and dreams”).

ACIM: All experiences the mind has within the world of time and space, including the world itself, which are simply imaginary experiences your mind has while asleep (see sleep) in Heaven and unaware of true reality. Just like nighttime dreams, this world seems to be reality, seems to exist outside your mind and independent of it, seems filled with things and people that are not part of you, and seems to cause you to feel things. Yet, also like dreams, it is an escape from reality, a fantasy, which exists within your mind and was caused by you. Just as nighttime dreams are your protest against the insults of daytime “reality” (see CE T-18.II), so daytime dreaming is your protest against true reality.

1. Conventional experience and states of mind in this world are described as nightmares. These are painful because you seem to be attacked from outside and because you do bad things that seem to warrant punishment. Release comes from realizing that they are only dreams, that you are the dreamer who made them up.
2. You can choose that your nightmares be changed into happy dreams, forgiving dreams. From these you can awaken to reality. See CE T-27.VIII-XI.

The figures we see in the world. This refers primarily to human bodies, but more generally to all the forms we see. These figures seem to be real and independent of our minds. Believing they are real, we assign them roles or functions, things they are supposed to do to save or protect us. However, they are simply figures in our dream. As such, dynamics within our minds are controlling them. They act out thoughts of ours which frighten us and which we refuse to admit are inside us, yet which we still want to hang onto. So these thoughts seem to live outside of us, animating the dream figures. These are often thoughts of self-attack, which is why the dream figures so frequently attack us. See CE T-18.II.5:3-6.

The expectation of being attacked. The single emotion of the ego, the emotion of separation. Fear is a recoil into separation, away from a perceived source of danger. In contrast, love extends in order to join with a source of happiness. “Everyone draws nigh unto what he loves, and recoils from what he fears” (CE T-13.V.5:4). Fear and love are thus opposites and are the only two emotions. Fear, however, exists only in relation to love. Fear, in fact, is fear of love, as well as lack of love, denial of love, and a call for love (see CE T-12.II.1-4). Rather than being the initial cause of other emotions, fear is the end result of a chain of emotions and contains implicit within it all the emotions of the chain: First, we feel anger, which is expressed in attack. Then we feel guilt, for we interpret our attack as a sin. Then we fear the punishment and death our guilt says we deserve (see CE T-5.VI.5-6:1). Out of our fear, we attack in self-defense, and the chain starts over. Fear is the ego’s goal and its essence. The ego must cause fear to perpetuate itself, yet it must conceal from us how fearful we are (see CE T-11.V.8-12). For when we truly look at our fear, we will decide that the cost of the ego is too great, and will give it up. See fear of God.

The final obstacle to peace (see CE T-19.IV.D.1-7), the veil across the face of Christ, the only thing that keeps us from God. Our fear of God exists on two distinct levels.

1. The ego fears God as He truly is; it fears His Love, Life, joy and peace. It fears Him because it knows that in His boundless Oneness it would disappear. To keep from disappearing, the ego must give us reason to fear Him also.
2. Therefore, the ego persuades us to condemn our brothers, so that we will feel guilty, so that we will punish ourselves with pain, sickness and death. Then, through projection, we see God as standing at the head of this system of “justice.” We think that He is an angry god, Who believes in our guilt and seeks to punish us for our sins, and Who should thus be feared. The fear of God will go as we forgive our brothers, and as we realize that the angry god we envision is our own ego (see CE W-196.8-12), and that the true God is One of Love. See fear.

See CE T-29.I.1-3, CE W-170.9-11.

Our final awakening to Heaven, in which God Himself will lift us home (sometimes depicted in romantic or parental imagery of God gathering us into His embrace; see CE W-168.3:4, CE W-317.2:5). What fully restores to us the memory of God. Our job, with the Holy Spirit’s help, is to attain the state of perfect right-mindedness or true perception in which we retain not a trace of opposition to (or fear of) the heavenly state. Yet even then there will be a gap between our perception and knowledge, which we cannot bridge. It is God Who bridges this gap, reaching down to lift us into Heaven. He will do this the instant we have no resistance to Heaven—we do not have to wait on Him or on our brothers. We play no part in this step, because we did not put ourselves in Heaven in the first place. And lifting us back into Heaven is somehow the same act as bringing us into Heaven in the beginning. Thus, the last step was paradoxically accomplished in the first step—our creation by God (see CE T-13.IX.3). See CE T-6.VIII.6-9, CE T-18.VIII.11.

Our final awakening to Heaven, in which God Himself will lift us home (sometimes depicted in romantic or parental imagery of God gathering us into His embrace; see CE W-168.3:4, CE W-317.2:5). What fully restores to us the memory of God. Our job, with the Holy Spirit’s help, is to attain the state of perfect right-mindedness or true perception in which we retain not a trace of opposition to (or fear of) the heavenly state. Yet even then there will be a gap between our perception and knowledge, which we cannot bridge. It is God Who bridges this gap, reaching down to lift us into Heaven. He will do this the instant we have no resistance to Heaven—we do not have to wait on Him or on our brothers. We play no part in this step, because we did not put ourselves in Heaven in the first place. And lifting us back into Heaven is somehow the same act as bringing us into Heaven in the beginning. Thus, the last step was paradoxically accomplished in the first step—our creation by God (see CE T-13.IX.3). See CE T-6.VIII.6-9, CE T-18.VIII.11.

Conventional: Giving up your resentment towards another and your right to punish him, even though you keep the perception that he sinned against you and that you are justified in resenting and punishing him. According to the Course, this forgiveness cannot forgive, for it affirms that the other sinned and thus is worthy of condemnation (yours and his own). It also affirms that you are holier than he, because he sinned and you forgave (see CE T-27.II.2:7).

ACIM: Giving up your false perception that another sinned against you and that you are justified in resenting and punishing him. Releasing this perception automatically releases your resentment and desire to punish. Releasing another not from what he did, but from “what he did not do” (CE T-17.III.1:5), from your misinterpretation of what he did. This can forgive, for it frees your mind of resentment and releases the other from the accusation of sin and guilt. The rationale behind forgiveness is that sin is not real. It is a wrong perception of attack. Attack has no power to do real harm (see “mind cannot attack”), because what is real (in you and in your “attacker”) cannot be harmed or changed in any way. The ultimate rationale for forgiveness is that “the separation never occurred” (CE T-6.III.5:5, see Atonement), that “I am as God created me,” that “God’s Son is guiltless.” Attack, then, has no effects. It is a harmless mistake, a call for love. Thus, what caused you to feel hurt was not the other’s attack, but your own misperception of his attack. Forgiveness lets this misperception go. As a result, it heals the other person of guilt, and can even heal his body. It also heals your mind of guilt and fear, for these came from your anger and resentment. It also heals you of your sense of separateness, for it takes away the perception of sinfulness that made you recoil from your brother. Forgiveness is the source of extension and the way to joining. Forgiveness is salvation. It is the central theme of the Course, and (according to the Course) of the Holy Spirit’s entire plan for salvation. See CE W-WI.1.

Two aspects possessed by things in this world; the shape (form) something takes—the words, images, or behavior it is clothed in—and the essential meaning (content) which that form is meant to communicate.

1. The ego disregards content, believing that the form is the content, the form is the meaning. It puts on impressive and complex displays of form, in the attempt to hide its own meaningless, incoherent content (see CE T-14.XI.6-8). It thinks that problems are matters of form and that the solution lies in changing the form.
2. The Holy Spirit sees the form as neutral, as inherently meaningless and content-free. Because His only concern is the content, He will adapt the form to suit the need. He communicates the same content through all paths (CE M-1.3), all teachers (see CE T-14.VI.5-VII), and all lessons (see CE W-193), regardless of differences in form.
3. Our only concern should also be the content. We must realize that what will save us is not a change of form but a change in content, a change in the meaning we see in things. We must see the same content in all choices, events, and situations.

Two aspects possessed by things in this world; the shape (form) something takes—the words, images, or behavior it is clothed in—and the essential meaning (content) which that form is meant to communicate.

1. The ego disregards content, believing that the form is the content, the form is the meaning. It puts on impressive and complex displays of form, in the attempt to hide its own meaningless, incoherent content (see CE T-14.XI.6-8). It thinks that problems are matters of form and that the solution lies in changing the form.
2. The Holy Spirit sees the form as neutral, as inherently meaningless and content-free. Because His only concern is the content, He will adapt the form to suit the need. He communicates the same content through all paths (CE M-1.3), all teachers (see CE T-14.VI.5-VII), and all lessons (see CE W-193), regardless of differences in form.
3. Our only concern should also be the content. We must realize that what will save us is not a change of form but a change in content, a change in the meaning we see in things. We must see the same content in all choices, events, and situations.

Our function is extension. All guilt and sadness come from not fulfilling this function.

1. In Heaven our function is creation, in which we extend God’s function of creation (see CE T-9.III.8:7-9:4).
2. On earth our function is healing (see CE T-12.X.5:1-4), which comes from extending forgiveness to others. This is how we reach happiness. The Holy Spirit gives us a special form of this extension, which is called our special function.
3. The Holy Spirit’s Own function is to heal us, to lead us back to God, to return us to eternity.

See teaching. See CE T-13.IV.1.

In the world, what you have is different from what you are. The ego teaches that what you are is lacking, empty (see lack). To be happy, then, you must apparently have more. You must acquire things from the outside and make sure you do not give them away. In Heaven, however, having and being are the same. What you have is what you are, and what you are is everything. Therefore, you can give all you have without losing it because it is not detachable from you, being what you are. You remember this state through giving in this world (see giving/receiving) and through overcoming all doubts about what you are (see CE T-6.VI.6:8-VII.C, especially CE T-6.VII.B.4-5, CE T-6.VII.B.10-11:2, CE T-6.VII.C.6-9:4, CE T-6.VII.C.10-11:2).

The Course uses masculine pronouns for all beings: God and His creations (Christ, the Sons of God and the Holy Spirit). Traditionally, masculine pronouns have been used for both the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit—all “He”) and the collectivity of humanity (mankind). This has expressed the preeminence of masculinity, the victory of the male in the war of the sexes. The Course, as with so many of its terms, has taken this traditional terminology and filled it with radically new meaning. In the Course, “he” does not refer to the male, nor to specifically male qualities and values. It refers to a spirit that is neither male nor female, neither human, animal, plant or mineral, that is beyond all biology and personality and transcends space and time. Thus, rather than favoring one side of the gender gap and affirming the male victory in the war of the sexes, this new meaning does not even acknowledge gender as real. For the split between male and female is one of the most fundamental separations, and separation is an illusion. This new meaning further does not regard beings as defined in any way by their bodies, whether those bodies be male, female, human or non-human. Thus, the Course has filled terms which assumed the reality of gender and the preeminence of masculinity with meaning that radically redefines beings as non-physical and gender-free. In so doing, the Course marches the new meaning right into the old term, so that the old meaning, with all of its associated scars and aggression, can be brought to light and replaced. See brother, God, Son of God.

Root meaning: The restoration of wholeness, the remedy for sickness.

Conventional: Sickness and healing are primarily of the body.

ACIM: Sickness and healing are entirely of the mind. The mind’s sick thought system is the source of all pain. Healing is thus the replacement of wrong thinking with right thinking; the release from fear and the acceptance of love. The “Holy Spirit is the only therapist” (CE T-13.IX.1:1), and the Atonement is the principle behind all healing.

1. Healing is not needed in Heaven, where unchangeable wholeness reigns.
2. In this world, the ego tells us that we are beyond the hope of healing (see magic). This belief, however, is an expression of our underlying fear of healing.
3. We ultimately find healing through letting go our perception—of self and others—that we are separate and sinful, which lets us see past sick appearances to the underlying wholeness which has never changed.
4. In this world, healing others is our only function, our one true response to all that happens and our one proper mode of communication. Through forgiveness we overlook the sick appearance of others and see their true wholeness.
5. This extension of healing to the minds of others can heal their bodies, yet this is only a shadow or symptom of true healing.
6. Only through allowing healing into our own minds can we extend healing to others (see accepting the Atonement for oneself).
7. Healing and joining go together. Healing comes from and results in the joining of minds (see holy relationship).

See teaching.

Conventional: The dwelling place of God, where He lives in perfect and everlasting communion with His children, who enter this state of perfect joy after physical death.

ACIM: The dwelling place that God created for His Son, where They are joined in perfect oneness and eternal peace, where They ceaselessly sing Their song of love to each other (see song of Heaven). Our home, in which we were created and which we never left. In contrast to conventional images, Heaven is reality itself, the only reality, and is a realm of pure spirit or mind, without space, form, perception, or change. There are no clouds, thrones, beards, harps, or wings. There are no bodies or passage of time. There is nothing but the pure oneness of Father and Son. “Heaven is not a place or a condition. It is merely an awareness of perfect oneness” (CE T-18.VI.1:5-6). See eternity and Kingdom of God. See CE T-13.XII.1, CE T-13.XII.4-5:2.

Conventional: The opposite of Heaven. An afterlife realm where sinners are eternally punished and forever separated from God.

ACIM:

1. An afterlife realm of eternal punishment which is not real, yet which is the ego’s goal for us, and which the ego tells us awaits us after death because of all our sins (see CE T-15.I.3-8). This threat of hell is the unconscious source of all fear of the future.
2. This world, which, like hell, is a state of separation from God in which we seem to be constantly punished for our sins.
3. What the ego tells us Heaven is, because there we will find God’s wrath (or so it says) and there the ego will disappear.

A quality of divine innocence or purity, untainted by the slightest sin, guilt or impurity. A quality that comes from God to those things that are like Him. Holiness is the natural condition of God’s creations and is shared. It is characterized not by separation from the impure (as in some traditional notions), but by oneness with all things. It can never be tainted or lost, only obscured. Salvation comes through overlooking all unholiness and seeing again the native holiness in others and in oneself (see vision).

An encounter between two people in which salvation is given and returned and mutually shared. The Course teaches that such encounters are the most powerful catalysts for our awakening, for it is in these that “salvation can be found” (CE T-13.IV.8:5). It also teaches that the Holy Spirit arranges all human encounters, making sure that each one contains the potential for being a holy encounter (see CE M-3.2). The term itself is seldom used (see CE T-8.II, CE T-13.IV, P-2.I.4), but the concept occurs throughout the Course (see for instance, CE M-3.2, P-3.III.6, CE W-315.1, CE W-95.16:3-16:6, P-2.VII.8).

A moment in which we temporarily set aside the past and enter into the timeless present, in which we momentarily transcend identification with illusions and recognize what is real. We enter the holy instant not by making ourselves holy, but by forgetting our normal frame of reference, with its absorption in the past, the future, the body and our own sinfulness. This allows our minds to be still and shift into another state of mind. There we experience the lifting of the barriers of space and time, unawareness of the body, the sudden feeling of peace, joy and love, recognition of our true holiness, and communion with all that seemed to lay outside of us—with all our brothers and with God. In this instant we may be bumped ahead years in our spiritual development, because we experience the endpoint of development (see CE T-1.47.1-2 and CE T-1.47.4:2-3). After this instant we will go forth in time carrying a permanent quiet center of timelessness. Our goal is to eventually make every situation a holy instant so that our lives become a permanent holy instant. At that point we will go beyond time into the endless instant of eternity (see CE T-15.IV.6:3). The Course speaks of various kinds, degrees and functions of the holy instant (which is called an “out-of-pattern time interval” early in the Text; see CE T-1.47.4:6):

1. The holy instant is the birthplace of the miracle (see CE T-27.VI.3:1-4). In it our thoughts are healed and this healing then extends out to the world (see CE T-28.I.11).
2. The holy instant can go beyond the miracle and be a revelation, a direct experience of God.
3. We will often bring illusions into the holy instant, making the experience a weakened version of the holy instant (see CE T-16.VII.8).
4. We can experience a kind of quasi-holy instant (which may lead to a true holy instant) through joining with music, a beautiful scene, a memory or even an abstract idea (see CE T-18.VI.14).
5. The holy instant is the answer to the special relationship.
6. Joint holy instants (ones experienced mutually with another person) are the Course’s special means of shortening our spiritual journey (see CE T-22.VII.7:4-5). Joint holy instants both initiate the holy relationship (see CE T-17.V.1:1-7) and are crucial tools in its development (see CE T-18.V.6-7).

See CE T-15.

A relationship in which holiness has entered (also called a “real relationship” in CE T-13.XI and CE T-17.IV), though this holiness may not yet be fully manifest and the relationship may still be dominated on the surface by patterns of specialness. The source of salvation (see CE T-20.VIII.4:5), a necessary means to salvation, the Course’s special means for saving time (see CE T-22.VII.6-8). The holy relationship is a process, a gradual reversal of the special relationship. It begins when two or more people truly join in a common goal, at least for an instant (see holy instant). In this instant, the Holy Spirit enters the relationship and heals it at a deep, unconscious level, changing its goal from sin to holiness. As the two forgive each other, this deep-level healing then slowly works its way to the surface, overturning the remaining ego patterns. As the holy relationship matures, the two will experience an increasing sense of oneness, which will prove to them experientially that they are not separate egos. And they will exercise their joint special function of together giving healing to the world. The Course and its supplements mention several forms of holy relationship:

1. The Text (see Chapters 17-22) discusses a holy relationship between peers.
2. The Manual discusses a holy relationship between a spiritual teacher and his pupil (see CE M-2.5).
3. The Psychotherapy supplement discusses a holy relationship between therapist and patient (see P-2.In.4, I.3, II.5-9).
4. The Song of Prayer supplement mentions a holy relationship (by concept but not by name) between people who pray together (see S-1.IV.1-3).
5. The Text discusses a holy relationship between people who had already had a special relationship (see CE T-17.V.1:9).
6. The Manual mentions that a holy relationship can begin when two individuals first meet (see CE M-3.2:6-8).

ACIM: The third part of the Holy Trinity (see CE T-5.II.2:1), God’s Answer to the separation, the Voice for God, our internal Teacher, the communication link between God and His separated Sons, the bridge between knowledge and perception. God created the Holy Spirit at the separation and placed Him inside every sleeping mind as the call to awaken (see CE T-6.VI.7-8:1). He dwells in our right mind and our Christ Mind. He has the special function of undoing the separation so that God’s children can come home. At the heart of everything He does is the fact that He is completely aware of both reality and illusions.

1. This enables Him to translate reality into a form we can understand in the world of illusions. He translates knowledge into true perception, waking into happy dreams, Heaven’s laws into laws of mind that operate on earth (see extension and laws).
2. This also enables Him to translate everything we made into a way out of what we made. He translates the world into a teaching device for leading us home, the body into an instrument of communication, memory of the past into memory of the timeless present, our defenses against truth into defenses against illusion, our special relationships into holy relationships, our desire to be special into our special function, human language into a meaningful communication about truth, and so on.
3. He is able to see illusions in light of reality, thus seeing their unreality. He sees everything we see, all the pain, guilt and death, yet realizes that none of it is real. Thus He sees that we are still God’s guiltless Son.
4. He can communicate with us who believe in illusions and can thereby lead us to reality. He is our Teacher, Who teaches us true perception, guides us into it, and replaces our perception with it when we are willing to let ours go. He judges for us, separating out the true from the false for us. He selects our part in the plan of the Atonement, shows us what it is, guides us in the doing of it and carries it out through us. When He has led all of God’s children home, He will have completed His special function and will remain with us in Heaven to keep us from separating again (see CE T-5.II.12:7).

See CE T-5.I.5-IV, CE W-In.7.

Conventional: Seeing ourselves as lowly, sinful and unworthy (the root of the word is humus: earth or dirt). This, says the Course, is false humility or arrogance, for it says that we know who we are better than God does.

ACIM: Realizing that on our own we know nothing, and so instead accepting God’s definition of us as His infinitely glorious and holy Son (see CE W-152.9-10:1), and accepting His definition of our function as being a savior of the world (see CE W-61.1-3).

The principle which states that we do not need to do anything to make ourselves holy, to be worthy of salvation. We need simply let go our active interference and accept the Atonement, and salvation will be given us. Indeed, in the separated state we can do nothing (CE T-8.III.11:3) and have done nothing—that is, have not sinned. To experience the holy instant, then, we need not prepare ourselves, for we are worthy now. But we do need, for a moment, to stop all doing, both physical and mental, and enter a moment of stillness in which past, future, and the body are forgotten. See accepting the Atonement for oneself. See CE T-22.VII.

Conventional: A deranged state of mind in which one has lost touch with reality and retreated into a senseless, disordered, private world.

ACIM: The state of everyone in the world who believes in the ego’s thought system, and has therefore lost touch with true reality and retreated into a senseless, private world. In this state you are totally isolated, you think you are someone other than who you are, you fear love and love fear, you hear and speak to shadow figures that are not there, you see only the projection of your own split mind wherever you look (see CE T-13.V.6), and you believe your magical wishes have overthrown the Will of God. The ego is based on the insane notions of sin, anger, attack, guilt, defense, sacrifice, punishment, fear, and death (see CE W-WI.12.2). The world is a projection of this insanity (see CE T-14.I.3:4-7). From the ego’s perspective, God and His Love, peace, and joy are insane. It tries to convince you that He made this insane world and so is Himself insane. Knowing you cannot lead yourself out (for you are insane) God answered the ego’s insanity with a sane Answer, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the reference point from which you can look back on insanity and see it as insane (see CE T-13.III.7-11). He will give you reason, the solution to insanity, which leads the partially sane to complete sanity (see CE T-21.V.11:1).

Our natural condition of being unable to be hurt, injured or changed in any way, which the Atonement restores to us. Vulnerability comes not from being attacked, but from our own attack thoughts (see CE W-26.2-4). These assume that we can attack and so can also be attacked. These also cause guilt which affirms that we deserve to be attacked. Invulnerability, then, comes not from self-defense, but from guiltlessness, which comes from being both harmless and helpful. Through defenselessness, through teaching our brother we are immune to attack, we prove that our brother is innocent, for his attack did not hurt us. We show him this through our lack of emotional upset (see CE T-14.III.6:3-7:3) and through a healthy body (see CE T-27.II.5:3-5). For upset and sickness are messages we send to our brother which say, “Behold me, brother, at your hand I die” (CE T-27.I.4:6). See crucifixion.

Christian: The only begotten Son of God who came to earth to die for our sins. We receive salvation through having faith in him and his sacrificial death. ACIM: One of God’s Sons, equal to all the rest, who was the first to perfectly complete his part (his special function) in the plan for salvation, and so became the leader in that plan and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Our model for decision, thought, learning and rebirth. In his life he perfectly demonstrated the way home through true forgiveness. In his crucifixion he taught that even in the most extreme attacks we cannot be hurt and so can teach only love. In his resurrection he set in motion the Atonement and brought us all home. Yet we think we are still here, and so he is now a living presence in all minds, who works to bring us to the realization of the homecoming that has already occurred. As part of this function, he has authored A Course in Miracles (see course, the). “This course has come from him…” (CE M-23.7:1). Through its words, he speaks to us, teaches us and guides us home. He calls us to join with him, but only so that we can receive his love, his faith and trust in us, and his liberating teaching, and so that we can extend his love to the world. See CE T-1.46.13:2-20, CE T-31.IX.7-12, CE W-Re.5.In.6-9, CE M-23, CE C-4.

The mental process of trying to decide what things are, which things are desirable and worthy, and which are dangerous and guilty. This results in rewarding and selecting certain things and punishing and rejecting others (see CE T-3.VII.11:7-12:4). On this process rests our perceptions, our emotions, our attitudes and our behavior.

1. This process does not apply to reality, which is all one and is given. Reality can only be accepted and known, not judged.
2. Judgment is the process by which we make and organize our illusory worlds, surrounding ourselves with those illusions which we think will support our egos. We apply this process to people, judging which ones deserve special treatment (see special relationship) and which ones deserve punishment (see CE T-15.V.7).
3. Judgment is meant to make us safe, but it really brings separateness, guilt, fear and the impossible burden of trying to play God (see CE M-10.6).
4. Judgment is not our function (see CE T-14.XI.4:2-3). It should be given to the Holy Spirit, Who will tell us what things mean and what we should do. He sees only one difference: the difference between reality and illusion (see CE M-8.6). He thus separates all things in the world into those that reflect reality and those that reinforce illusion.
5. The right use of judgment is to judge the ego and decide it is both undesirable and untrue (see CE T-4.VI.12:1-3). See Last Judgment.

See CE T-3.X.

Root meaning: A principle of fairness which says that everyone should receive only what they deserve. This must be assessed based on an impartial account of how well they have conformed to the law.

Conventional: A principle separate from love which punishes sinners for their crimes, taking vengeance on them. A process of deciding who is the guilty one and taking from him to give back to the innocent.

ACIM: A principle which gives love and forgiveness to everyone with complete impartiality and without limit, which gives no punishment and asks no penalty. This is true fairness because no one has broken God’s laws. Everyone is still the Son of God, still innocent. Thus, the miracle is everyone’s just due (see no order of difficulty in miracles). The world’s justice is really injustice. It is simply a justification for attack, and all attack is unjust. It also makes us believe that God’s Love is separate from His justice, which makes Him seem fearful (see fear of God). See CE T-25.VIII-X, CE M-19.

Confusing the three levels of spirit, mind and body by thinking that correction applies to a level other than mind. Spirit needs no correction, for it cannot be in error and cannot be tainted by the errors of the mind. The body cannot make errors (since it has no volition of its own) and has no power to hurt the mind or make it happy. The mind is the only level that needs correction—the correction of its faulty thinking. Magic represents level confusion and the miracle is the means of undoing it (see CE T-2.VII.3-5). This term only occurs in the first two chapters of the Text. See CE T-2.VII.11-12.

Conventional: A principle or force that characterizes a functioning, animated body; biological vitality.

ACIM: A principle or force of spiritual vitality, existence, reality, which is imparted by God, is infinite and eternal, is all one with no separate parts, has no opposite or degrees, and cannot be extinguished or lessened in any way (see death). ““[A]n eternal attribute of everything the living God created”  (CE T-4.VI.17:1); “the one condition in which all that God created share” (CE W-167.1:3). Life is of the mind and spirit. It has nothing to do with the body. “There is no life outside of Heaven” (CE T-23.III.20:1). The body does not live; it has only an illusion of life (see CE T-6.VII.1:3-4). Life is: “eternal” (CE T-1.27.4:2), “creation” (CE T-11.I.1:6), “God” (CE T-14.X.5:3), “peace” (FIP T-27.VII.10:5), CE T-27.IX.3:5, “thought” (CE W-54.2:4), “communication with God” (CE T-14.VI.4:6).

1. A spiritual quality of holiness, life, truth, and joy. God created us in light and as light. Light is thus the substance of our being. The light He placed in us at our creation has seemingly been obscured by the fog of the ego, but it cannot really be obscured. We need to get in touch with this inner light. Once we do, it will radiate out from us and shine away the darkness in other minds, as we see past their bodies to the light in them. Illumining their minds will then make us more aware of the light in us.
2. The light of mental clarity, which makes true vision and understanding possible, and automatically dispels the darkness of ego, illusion, ignorance, confusion, sleep, and dreams. Rather than interpreting things in the dim light of our ego, and seeing things in many lights, we need to see everything in the Holy Spirit’s light. We need to bring our ego’s darkness out of unconsciousness and into His light (see bringing darkness to light, illusions to truth). And we need to let His light—which is found in us, in our brother’s holiness, and in forgiveness—light our way home, so that we do not lose our way in the dark.

See glory, Great Rays.

Christian: Symbols of Easter, of Jesus’ resurrection.

ACIM: Symbols of forgiveness, for in the Course’s teaching, the recognition of innocence is what leads to resurrection, and forgiveness is the recognition of innocence. Thus, the Course calls lilies “the white and holy sign the Son of God is innocent” (CE T-20.I.2:1). When you forgive your brother you are giving him lilies rather than thorns (which symbolize the crucifixion that comes from guilt), placing them on his inner altar and thereby placing them on your own as well. See CE T-20.I-II.

All we need to have in order to receive the miracle and the holy instant from the Holy Spirit. If we give Him a little willingness, as well as recognize our unwillingness, the Holy Spirit will add to our gift His perfect willingness and God will add His unlimited Will. How much is a little willingness? A little willingness to receive the holy instant means “recognizing that you want it above all else” (CE T-18.IV.1:4). A little willingness to have the Holy Spirit remove our wrong thinking means that we want Him to take it more than we want to keep it (see CE T-25.VIII.1:6). Thus, having a little willingness seems to mean tipping the scales—wanting what is of God more than we want other things. See CE T-16.VI.12, CE T-18.IV.

Denotes all living things on earth, which seem to be physical or biological entities, but which are really parts of God’s one Son and are still as God created them. In other words, their true nature is the same as ours. Despite their physical appearances, they are infinite, eternal spirit, part of God and one with us. They are blessed by our forgiving thoughts and in turn recognize the Christ in us (see CE W-156.4-5). Since the word “living” here does not fundamentally refer to biological life (see life), “living things” seems to include not only animals and plants but waves, wind (see CE W-156.4), streams (see CE W-109.7-8) and grains of sand (see CE T-28.IV.8).

The single emotion of Heaven, which contains within it the emotions of peace and joy. The opposite of fear (though in truth love has no opposite). The single dynamic of Heaven: “Love is extension” (CE T-24.I.3:1); “To create is to love” (CE T-6.VIII.3:5); “love is sharing” (CE T-12.XI.1:5). In love we view something as so attractive, so compatible with us, that we go out to it, give ourselves to it and join with it (see CE T-18.VI.14:4-5). Primarily refers to Heaven, though occasionally refers to the right minded state on earth. We can love only like God, for only His Love is real. This means that real love is total, always maximal, without degrees, distinctions or selectivity (see CE W-127.1). Special love, which is doled out differently to different people at different times, is not love. Love cannot be learned, it need only be welcomed. This is done through forgiveness, which is an earthly form of love (see CE W-186.14:2). See creation, extension, and special relationships.

A basic principle concerning the nature of mind. Minds may seem able to attack each other, yet they cannot. For they are all united and attack assumes the collision of separate objects. Minds also cannot truly be attacked, for this assumes injury and minds cannot be injured, being changeless. Bodies, however, are both separate and changeable. They can attack and be attacked. Identifying with the body, then, makes the mind seem capable of attack. When the mind wants to attack, it directs the body to act out the attack. This produces guilt, which the mind then projects upon the body, blaming the body for its actions. And this causes physical sickness. Despite this illusion, mind still cannot attack. This means attack is not real, which means sin does not exist (see CE T-19.II.1:3-4). See CE T-18.VI.3-7:3, CE W-161.6.

Conventional: A divine healing of the physical world or body, in which the normal earthly laws of sickness and death are momentarily suspended, the Spirit enters, and brings instantaneous healing in ways considered impossible.

ACIM: A divine healing of human perception, in which the normal “laws” of egoic thinking (based on guilt, fear, sickness and death) are momentarily suspended. This is carried out by the Holy Spirit, Who shifts our perception from false to true and thereby grants us unconditional, instantaneous, and free deliverance from the imprisoning (yet illusory) problems of this world, regardless of their seeming size or gravity (see no order of difficulty in miracles). Contrary to our thinking, miracles are truly natural (see CE T-1.5). They are the opposite of magic, where we try to use an unnatural power (something apart from God’s Will) to save us by rearranging illusions (rather than awakening the mind to truth). Miracles are the means for achieving the goal of the Course. They bring us to the remembrance of Heaven, where they become functionless.

1. The Holy Spirit will heal our own perception whenever we give Him permission, which we do by suspending our wrong thinking and desiring right thinking (see little willingness, a).
2. The primary usage is the act of the Holy Spirit extending through our mind to heal the mind of another. This occurs when we are at least momentarily in a state of right-mindedness, when we see a brother free of the past, guiltless (see accepting the Atonement for oneself). This can result in the healing of his body, and the transcending of all physical laws (see CE T-12.X.3:3)—though this is a symptom of the miracle, rather than its goal. This will also heal our own mind. Miracles can have unrecognized effects, and in fact affect the entire Sonship. However, we should actively give them only where guided to by the Holy Spirit. Ideally, they should be involuntary—activated through us by the Spirit.
3. A minor usage is God’s creation of His Son (see CE T-13.IX.6:5). See extension, forgiveness, function, healing, and holy instant.

See CE T-1.

Usually called simply “the receiver.” One who receives miracles from a miracle worker. These miracles come from the right-mindedness within the worker and are designed to restore right-mindedness to the receiver. They also give strength, love, spiritual progress, and conviction to the receiver. To maximize reception, the miracle should be expressed in a form that is most helpful and least fear-producing for the receiver. See CE T-2.VIII.1:3-4.

One whose function is to allow the Holy Spirit to heal the minds of others through him. One who gives miracles to miracle receivers (see CE T-2.VIII.1:3). His task is to deny the denial of truth in the receiver (see CE T-12.II.6:5). To do this, he must first accept the Atonement for himself; he must be in his own right mind, however briefly (see accepting the Atonement for oneself). He must also ask which miracles he should perform and must trust that once a miracle has been given it has been received, whether it has been consciously accepted or not. He must understand the fear of release (see CE T-2.VII.11:1) and cooperate with Jesus (see CE T-3.II.7:2).

The Course (especially in Lesson CE W-183) asks us to call upon God’s Name, but does not tell us what that Name is. The next lesson even says, “God has no name” (CE W-184.12:1)—apparently meaning that there is no word that is the Name of God. Presumably, then, we can use a name of our own choosing. Indeed, Lesson 67 instructs us to choose names for God, asking only that those names are “in accordance with God as He defines Himself” (CE W-67.2:8). The sample names given are “Holiness,” “Kindness,” “Helpfulness,” and “Perfection.” Similarly, Lesson 282 says, “Father, Your Name is Love” (CE W-282.2:1). The most commonly used name for God in the Course is “Father.” The Course emphasizes that our true name is God’s Name, since we are His Son (see CE W-183.1). The various names we give people imply that each person is separate and unique, whereas, in truth, everyone is part of God and thus has only one Name—His. The Course often speaks of us or the Holy Spirit doing something “in the Name of God,” which means to do something on His authority or at His bequest, something that is in line with God’s Nature and Will. The Course speaks of us forgiving, being patient with, and giving miracles to our brother in God’s Name. And it speaks of the Holy Spirit doing everything that He does in God’s Name.

Root meaning: What is in harmony with the nature of a thing or of reality.

Conventional: What we find easy, effortless. What is in accord with the world of (physical) nature.

ACIM: What is of God, since the true nature of everything is God’s nature. Heaven, formless abstraction, is our natural state (see CE W-161.2:1). On earth, what is truly natural are miracles. The ego, the body and the “natural” world are extremely unnatural. They are habits we taught ourselves with great difficulty over millions of years. As a result, they now seem natural, while what is truly natural seems alien and difficult. See CE T-16.II.3, CE W-41.7:1-3.

The first principle of miracles (CE T-1.1) and of A Course in Miracles (see CE T-2.I.21:5), a central part of what miracles mean, “a real foundation stone” of the Course (CE T-6.VII.A.1:5). Though the world is made of problems ( sicknesses, pains, fears, etc.) of different shapes and sizes, the miracle can heal all of them with equal ease. This stamps the miracle as being from beyond this world. The Course gives three rationales for why there is no order of difficulty in miracles:

1. The power of God, the power of love, is always maximal (see CE T-14.XI.5:5-7).
2. All sons of God are equally worthy of the gift of healing (CE T-5.X.1:5).
3. All illusions are equally unreal; all are different sizes of zero (see CE M-8.5). The illusion that one problem is harder to heal than others is produced purely by our preference for that problem (see CE T-26.VII.5:4-6:5), our valuing of it (see CE M-8.3:7), which leads us to withhold it from the Holy Spirit’s healing (see  CE T-17.I.3:1). This idea that some illusions are more valuable than others is the basis for the first law of chaos (see CE T-23.III.2).

The period of time in which we do our practice. These periods range from mere seconds to a half an hour or more, depending on the Workbook’s instructions for a particular practice period. Also called “exercise period” and “practice session.”

Root meaning: Asking God. Communicating with or communing with God.

Conventional. Asking God to supply us with external things, people, conditions, and events that we think will protect us and satisfy us. According to the Course, these are prayers not to God but to our idols.

ACIM: Asking God for the healing of the mind (our own or that of others) and for the revelation of His Presence. All prayers are answered, except when we ask for what would hurt us (see CE T-9.I.11:1), or when we are afraid to receive the answer (see CE T-9.I.1-2:3). We must ask in confidence, asking merely to accept what we already have. For this reason, the prayers in the Course are generally affirmative statements and never contain the word “please.” The Course considers the various statements it asks us to repeat in the Workbook lessons or in the Text to be prayers. What is important is not the words of our prayers but the “prayer of the heart” (CE M-21.1:4). It is perfectly all right to pray to Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or the Christ. However, the Course’s prayers are generally addressed to God. God does not hear our words, but our prayers in some sense do reach Him through the Holy Spirit (see CE T-15.VIII.9:5). Prayer can serve different functions:

1. “Prayer is the medium of miracles” (CE T-1.11), which means that through prayer we receive the love, the healing, which we extend to others in the miracle. We must truly ask for this healing with the prayer of our heart, and not merely with our words (see CE M-21.1:4).
2. Most of the Course’s prayers ask for the healing of our own minds, ask to accept forgiveness (in some form) into our minds (see CE T-3.VII.10-11:3).
3. The prayers in Part II of the Workbook are meant to be invitations to God to come and give us the experience of oneness with Him (see CE W-PtII.In.4:4, CE W-PtII.In.5:6).
4. In the Course itself, prayer does not occur in Heaven. However, in the Song of Prayer supplement, prayer occurs not only in the separated state, but in Heaven. There, it is no longer asking, but is formless communion with God, an eternal song of love (see song of Heaven) we sing to God and He sings to us (see S-1.In.1).

The ego’s distorted use of extension, which seems to reverse cause and effect. The main defense of the separation, what keeps it going (see CE T-6.II.3:3-4). In extension, an idea goes forth from our mind without leaving it, thus linking our mind to the minds we extend to. In projection, we try to throw an idea out of our mind onto a supposedly external world. This makes the idea appear to be outside us, rather than inside. Being outside, the idea now appears to be objectively real; not our own effect, but an independent cause with power over us. In this way, the pain we gave ourselves now seems given to us by others (see CE T-7.VI.9-10). Projection thus masks the very law it applies: that it is our own thoughts that cause our perceptions and experience (see projection makes perception).

1. In the separation, we projected our belief in separateness outward, thus making the world. A world of separation now appeared to be an objective, real cause with power over us, rather than our own illusory projection (see CE T-18.I.5-7:3).
2. We now use projection to try to throw outside of us our feelings of guilt. This takes the form of blaming others. Yet this simply causes more guilt, and produces a perception in which the world seems poised to take vengeance on us for our attack on it (see CE W-22.1). In other words, we fear that our projections will return to our mind (see CE T-7.VII.2-4). Projection, then, is an ego device not to rid us of guilt, but to compound guilt and increase fear.
3. The figures we see in the world, which the Course calls dream figures, seem to be acting independently of us and often against our interests. However, they are really animated by our own disowned thoughts, which we don’t want to admit are inside of us, but prefer to see as outside of us and acting on us.
4. Projection produces our fear of God (along with such related beliefs as the traditional interpretation of the crucifixion; see CE T-3.III.6:1). We project onto God our belief that we are guilty, making it appear that He believes in our guilt, too, and wants to punish us for it. We think He accomplishes this through the attacks and calamities visited on us by the world (see CE W-153.7:3).

The Course’s theory of perception, which is a reversal of the common sense belief that our perception is caused from without. External objects seem to be sending information through our senses to our brains, seemingly causing our perception of them. Yet our perceptions are caused internally. Over time we build up beliefs about reality. These beliefs guide our attention, causing our eyes to search for those things that fit our pre-existing categories (CE M-8.4). Once we find these things, our beliefs guide our interpretation of them, and these interpretations are our perceptions (see CE T-11.VII.1-3). Our perceptions are thus projections of our beliefs, through the means of selective attention and subjective interpretation. As a result, what we see is simply a mirror, a reflection of our state of mind. See perception, projection. See CE T-13.V.3:5, CE T-21.I.1:1.

Conventional: A student who is learning under the close supervision of a teacher. Different from “student” in that one can be a student of a book, but can be a pupil only of a teacher.

ACIM: One who is being guided along a “way” by a teacher, whether that way is a spiritual path or a just way of living. The Course speaks of pupils of a generic teacher—one who teaches any one of the thousands of forms of the universal curriculum (see CE M-2, P-2.II). It also speaks of pupils of a teacher of A Course in Miracles (see CE M-17, CE M-18, CE M-23, CE M-24, CE M-29). These are newer students of the Course who are being guided along its path by a more experienced student who is in the role of mentor. In all of the above cases, a teacher is meant to pass on his particular “way” to his pupil. He does this perhaps through formal teaching, but he mostly does this through example and through the relationship itself. In this relationship, the pupil must remember that “only time divides teacher and pupil” (CE M-29.1:4), and that time is an illusion. This means 1) that teacher and pupil are equal in their eternal nature, 2) that the pupil has much to learn from his teacher in the particular area in which they have joined, and 3) that the pupil is there to gain equality with his teacher in that area, to become a teacher himself. See teaching-learning situation.

Responding with right-minded thoughts to the temptation to engage in egoic thinking. According to the Course, whenever we notice any kind of upset, we should have a habit of instantly responding with a right-minded thought, especially our Workbook idea for the day. The phrase is introduced in the Text (see CE T-31.III.1:3) and used (with variations) in the Workbook. It denotes a crucial element of Course practice.

Christian: The rising of Jesus’ body, which proved that he was divine. The rising of all believers at the end of time.

ACIM:

1. The rising of the mind, and of the entire Sonship, from the ego’s dream of death to the awareness of eternal life, from insanity to perfectly healed perception. This rising takes place due to the realization of the perfect innocence or holiness that is our true nature. This is followed by the ascension, by God taking the final step and lifting us into Heaven.
2. The resurrection of Jesus, the reawakening of his own mind (not the revivification of his body), which paved the way for his own return to knowledge (see CE T-3.VII.1:5), for his own final step (see CE C-5.1:1). The resurrection was not proof of Jesus’ divine status, but rather a demonstration of a general truth: that life cannot be destroyed, and indeed is the only reality (see CE T-3.III.8:1-2), that “there is no death” (mentioned eighteen times in the Course; see CE W-163_Heading). His resurrection set in motion the Atonement (see CE T-3.III.1:2). In it was contained the resurrection of the entire Sonship. Thus, by identifying with it we will experience our own resurrection. Although the reappearance of Jesus’ body can be seen as a symbol of the resurrection of his mind, the real resurrection was the disappearance of his body, not the reappearance, for that disappearance represented the removal of the limits that had been placed on the mind.

See CE M-28.

Root meaning: God revealing Himself to us.

Christian: God revealing to us ideas and truths, usually through the words of Scripture.

ACIM: God revealing knowledge of Himself through direct, wordless, imageless experience of union with Him (traditionally called the mystical experience). Refers to both the final or permanent experience of God in Heaven (which is the end or goal of the journey) and to temporary experiences of God while in this world (which reveal the end of the journey). Yet to reach this end, miracles are needed. They are the means and are more valuable now than revelation. See grace. See CE T-1.28.1-29.4, CE T-1.46.13-47.4.

Conventional: A state of sanity and decency that one can be in.

ACIM: A state of mind and a place in one’s mind that is completely sane. The home of the Holy Spirit, right-mindedness, forgiveness and miracles. It is still within the separated mind, but is the solution to the separation. This level of mind is totally unconscious, except for brief, occasional flashes. Yet the goal is to make it our normal conscious state of mind. See CE T-5.II.1.

The state of mind in which salvation lies. The answer to wrong-mindedness which paves the way for One-mindedness. The state of mind the miracle worker must be in to extend miracles to others (see accepting the Atonement for oneself). “Right-mindedness listens to the Holy Spirit, forgives the world, and through Christ’s vision sees the real world in its place” (CE C-1.4:5). Used only in the first four chapters of the Text and clarified in the Clarification of Terms. See CE T-2.VIII.1-4.

The special form given to each individual of the one function of extending forgiveness (see extension), of being a savior. The function we gave ourselves was specialness, which is achieved by attacking and diminishing our brother, and which we chose in order to hurt ourselves. The Holy Spirit, however, translated our desire for specialness into our special function, our special part or role in His plan for salvation. It reverses specialness. It is our special way of serving and exalting all our brothers, rather than trying to put them beneath us so that we feel superior. The Holy Spirit gives us a special form of extending healing which is suited to our particular strengths (see CE W-154.2:2). He also sends us particular people whom it is our function to save. This seems to begin with one person, our holy relationship partner (see CE T-20.IV.6:1). Then we and our partner are given a joint special function, which includes particular people to save. Ultimately, the ones we are appointed to save include everyone (see CE T-31.VIII.4:5). The Holy Spirit also gives us guidance and supply for every aspect of this function as well as the strength to carry it out. This is our part in the fulfillment of the Holy Spirit’s own special function (see function, #3). See CE T-25.VI.

The idea of being set apart from others and set above others. Having more or being more than others. Specialness is the great pay-off promised by the ego. Our attempt to gain special favor from God was the “tiny, mad desire” (CE T-25.I.8:4) that sparked the separation, that was the root of sin (see CE T-24.II.3:1-3) and that set us in opposition to the Will of God (for He knows no specialness). No price is too dear for us to pay for obtaining specialness. We seek it in our special relationships, where others give us special love and their special selves. In this way we try to symbolically extract from them the specialness that God denied us (see CE T-16.V). We seek it with our body, adorning our body in order to attract it. We also seek it by accumulating idols (see CE T-29.IX.7:7-8). All ways of seeking it involve attack, for specialness requires that others must be beneath us. It causes us to look for and rejoice at any sin we see in others. It makes everyone our enemy and so makes us feel attacked from every quarter. Because specialness is a form of separateness, it makes us feel weak, frail, isolated and alone. And because it is a form of attack, it makes us feel guilty and afraid. See CE T-24.

A relationship based on the pursuit of specialness, in which we try to a) have a special arrangement (an exclusive relationship) with and b) receive special treatment from c) a very special person, so that d) we can feel more special. Can exist between lovers, friends, or any nonenemies, though the Course discussions seem to primarily have romance in mind. The term “special relationship” is a synonym for “special love relationship” (there is only one fleeting reference to “special hate relationship”—see CE T-16.IV.1:1—and the idea is not a part of the concept of special relationship). The ego’s system naturally produces a hostile, painful relationship with the world, which deprives us of the love we want. To keep our allegiance, the ego must provide something that offers a semblance of the love we really want, yet still is of the ego. This is the special relationship, “the ego’s most boasted gift” (CE T-16.V.3:1). It seems to be a Heaven on earth, a haven of love in a world of hate, our greatest hope of happiness in a world of pain (see CE T-16.IV.3). Yet it is an illusion of love, a love that is unlike God’s, for He knows no special love. It is a disguise, a form (or an appearance) of love that covers a content of hate and attack (see CE T-17.IV.8-9), a content exactly like the rest of the ego’s system, which results in the same separateness, guilt, and fear. We can describe the relationship in stages:

1. First we search for a person different from the rest, one who is more special and has a special body with special parts (see CE T-15.V.2-3). Yet this process separates that person from her wholeness, for she is the whole. It reduces her from infinite magnitude down to a little pile of body parts (see CE T-15.V.7).
2. Then we offer her special behaviors and gifts that give her our specialness and, ultimately, give her our “self” (see CE T-16.V.8-9). These “gifts,” however, are attacks designed to make her guilty and so induce her to give her “self” in return (see giving/receiving).
3. We (almost certainly) do not receive from her the specialness we think we paid for. So we resort increasingly to taking vengeance on her for not reciprocating (see CE T-16.V.1). Whether we break up or stick it out, we almost inevitably feel disillusioned (see CE T-16.IV.4). There is truth in this response, for the love was an illusion.
4. The Holy Spirit, however, would not deprive us of these relationships (see CE T-17.IV.2:2) or have us throw them away. He would transform them into holy relationships, through forgiveness and the holy instant. Yet most holy relationships are still special relationships (see CE T-18.V.5:2-3). They are holy relationships-in-training; they have accepted the goal of holiness but have not yet reached that goal. Also called the “unholy relationship” in Chapters CE T-17-22.

See shadow figures. See CE T-15.V, CE T-15.VII-VIII.1-4, CE T-16.IV-VII, CE T-17.III-IV.

The substance of which God created His Son, of our true nature. Spirit is completely non-physical, formless, changeless, holy and perfect. It has only knowledge and no perception. It cannot descend into error and is unaware of the ego. It uses the mind to express itself in this world, so that the mind can be restored to spirit. See level confusion. See CE W-97.

A mind divided against itself, in which the more conscious half of the mind is walled off from its own true nature by denial, fear and dissociation. This split, which is apparent but not real, is then projected outward and symbolized by a split between the mind and other minds (see CE T-12.VI.2-3). In this divided state, the mind cannot truly create or communicate, for what it produces is ambivalent and contradictory.

1. The primary split is between the separated mind and its real Identity, the Christ Mind.
2. The secondary split is within the separated mind, between the ego and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Guide out of the split, for He is a unified Presence in the mind (see CE T-25.I.10:1-2).

To replace a thing with something else. The separation began when the ego substituted its will for God’s Will, illusion for reality, fear for love. This ancient substitution is reflected now in our special relationships, in which we substitute one person for another. We do not realize just how alien this is to God, Who never chooses one person in place of another. In all our relationships, we seek not love, but rather the magical substitute for love (see CE T-23.III.12-13:5). However, the substitute for love is war, and that is exactly what we find. In the end, our substitutes never satisfy, for, quite simply, “There is no substitute for Heaven” (CE W-182.3:6; the phrase “there is no substitute” occurs five times in the Course). Our substitutes not only do not satisfy, they have no reality, for we cannot truly replace what God created. We must acknowledge this, and follow the Holy Spirit as He seeks to reverse our substitution process. He would substitute forgiveness for our condemnation, the real world for our world, Christ’s vision for our perception, and the realization of our true Self for our self-concept. Yet on the road back, we must be careful not substitute the Holy Spirit’s gifts with the ego’s replacements for them, for that would merely be to repeat the original substitution “that shattered Heaven” (CE T-18.I.13:2).

One whose function is to teach others on behalf of God; a bringer of salvation, a savior, a miracle worker. This term is used only in the Manual for Teachers, which is written for experienced students of the Course who are ready to take on their special function. The Manual mentions two forms that this function may take. One is that of a healer, who goes to physically ill patients to extend the healing power of the miracle. The other is that of a spiritual teacher, who joins with pupils and teaches them his path of awakening. The following process of development is described:

1. A beginning teacher of God is one who has made one deliberate choice in which he saw someone else’s interests as the same as his (see CE M-1.1). His pupils then are drawn to him and join with him in the common goal of learning the same spiritual path (see CE M-2).
2. Through these holy relationships he becomes an advanced teacher of God who acquires the ten characteristics of God’s teachers (see CE M-4).
3. He finally transcends the world and becomes a Teacher of teachers (see CE M-26.2). From his position beyond the body he now will guide and inspire those teachers who are still in the body, working through them to save the world.

See extension, teaching.

Conventional: Imparting to others intellectual facts or concepts. This is done primarily through words and is a special activity in which one engages only a small portion of one’s time.

ACIM: The extension of one’s fundamental thought system (either the ego’s or the Holy Spirit’s) to others. This is done not so much by the form of our communication, but by the content we are communicating. Thus it is done primarily by example or demonstration. And it is done all the time; we cannot help but teach. Our special function is to extend right-minded ideas (e.g., forgiveness) to others. In this sense, teaching is synonymous with healing. As we see these ideas go forth from us and heal others, our belief in them becomes strengthened (see giving/receiving). Teaching, then, is the way in which we truly learn (see learning); thus the phrase “As you teach, so shall you learn” (CE T-5.V.13:2). See extension, teacher of God. See CE M-In.

The Course’s term (used only in CE M-2, CE M-3, and CE M-4) for a teacher-pupil relationship, which is a situation in which a teacher is teaching and a pupil is learning. This situation need not be formal—our most important teachers are often simply people we respect and whose example we follow. It need not be overtly spiritual—the Course mentions two students walking home together and becoming friends (CE M-3.2). And it need not be long-term—it can be a brief encounter on an elevator (CE M-3.2). But the ultimate goal of each teaching-learning situation is for it to become a holy relationship, in which teacher and pupil join in a single goal and gradually learn to overlook all the differences between them and see the face of Christ in each other. When this holy relationship is achieved, both are bumped ahead immeasurably on their journey. The pupil becomes a teacher of God and the teacher becomes an advanced teacher. See pupil and teacher of God.

The inner pull to engage in egoic thinking or behavior. This temptation seems to be an involuntary pull towards some forbidden pleasure, which has an unfortunate after-effect of guilt. Yet it is really a voluntary wish, a wish for guilt, hell and misery (see CE T-31.VIII.4:1). We must learn, however, that temptation is simply “another chance to choose again” (CE T-31.IX.4:1), through response to temptation.

Usually used generically, but sometimes refers specifically to concrete, physical things (as in CE T-13.VII.1:1-8, CE T-13.VII.8:9-13.VIII.1, CE T-13.VIII.3 and  CE W-346.1).

Thoughts as we know them are private, fleeting products of an individual mind. Yet these are not real thoughts. In contrast, Thoughts of God are eternal, formless realities, without birth or death, beginning or end. They are not private, but infinitely shared. They are not pictures of reality but are reality itself. We, His Sons, are Thoughts of God. See  CE T-30.IV.2-3:5.

An interrelated system of ideas that is centered on a view of who you are, provides a picture of reality and your relationship with it, and provides goals and how to attain them. You use your thought system to organize your reality. It is the basis for your thoughts, emotions, perceptions and behaviors. There are only two thought systems, the ego’s and God’s (or the Holy Spirit’s, which is a reflection of God’s). Each one is internally consistent, yet they are diametrically opposed in foundation, in nature, and in result. You cannot reconcile them by combining them or vacillating between them. You must choose all of one and none of the other. The Course treats its own thought system as a version of the Holy Spirit’s and claims its thought system is consistent, complete (see CE W-42.7:2), cohesive, and includes no fear. See CE T-11.I.1.

The linear progression of separate moments that is the context for change, attack, birth, and death.

1. There is no time in reality, in eternity, and thus time is an illusion.
2. Time resulted from our apparent shattering of the one moment of eternity in the separation. Time’s separate moments are really only a single moment, a fragment of eternity seen as non-eternal and as multiple. All of time, and the long journey it contains, took only a tiny instant in eternity (see CE T-26.V.3) before it was answered by God and was ended (see Holy Spirit). We are now at the end of time looking back on it, mentally reviewing it like we would a past conversation or movie (see CE M-2.2-4). We cannot change the basic progression of our movie (since it already happened), but we can “fast forward” through parts of it by accepting miracles (see CE T-1.47).
3. The ego tries to make time last forever by seeking to endlessly repeat the past. It tells us to take revenge for past injustices. Yet this is really a trick to get us to repeat past sins and so reinforce present guilt and fear of future punishment.
4. The Holy Spirit places all His focus on now, on undoing the past by releasing others from it (see forgiveness) and entering the present moment (see holy instant), the only moment that is real and the only moment in which we can change our minds. In the present moment we can experience eternity, since the present is a shard of eternity (see CE T-17.IV.11, CE T-17.IV.15:1-5). From this present moment a new future can extend, which does not repeat the past and which will lead us back to eternity. This is the only purpose of time.

Also called the “treasury,” “store,” “storehouse,” and “storehouse of treasures.” The deep place in our mind that holds all the treasures that God has stored up for us. This treasure house contains a limitless supply. Its doors are always open wide in welcome, and its gifts are freely available just for the asking. The treasures are not gold and silver but miracles. We must open the storehouse of our mind, receive its miracles, and give them away (CE W-159.2:5). When we take from its treasures, the store does not diminish, but actually increases. Our ultimate goal is to invite everyone into our treasure house (which is their treasure house, too) and have them join us in a joyous feast of miracles, in which there is no lack and no end, and where God and Christ will join us (see CE T-28.III.6-8).

The goal of the Course; salvation. Usually called vision or Christ’s vision; called “spiritual sight” early in the Text. The sight which comes out of the state of right-mindedness and looks upon the real world. True perception is the opposite of false or conventional perception. False perception sees the projection of our insane illusions. It sees a world of sin, of forms, changes and differences. It condemns what it looks on and separates from it in fear. True perception, on the other hand, sees everything as it truly is: perfect. It sees only sinlessness, innocence, holiness (see CE W-158.7), seeing always the same maximal light of Christ in everything (see face of Christ). It forgives all it sees, blessing it with miracles and joining with it in love. True perception does not function like conventional perception. Rather than seeing through our body’s eyes (see CE C-3.2:1), it sees through the eyes of Christ in us (and thus operates irrespective of distance or changes in lighting). Rather than seeing bodies, it sees holiness. Rather than using the brain to interpret sense data, it is born as a pure “knowing” straight from the Christ in us (see CE T-22.II.2-3:1). Rather than seeing visual images, it sees pure content, pure meaning (as when a sudden recognition prompts one to say, “I see”; see CE T-22.IV.1:4-7). It may, however, be symbolized and preceded by the seeing of light around visual objects (see CE W-15.2-3). From the perspective of true perception, all that our eyes now see will be reinterpreted. We will experience forms as unreal, as transparent (see CE W-159.5), and will mentally look past them to the light of holiness. We will see all forms as having the same purpose: forgiveness. And we will let the Holy Spirit interpret people’s behavior for us, focusing on the loving behavior and interpreting all other behavior as a call for love. True perception is our natural sight and is available to us whenever we want it. If it is achieved with respect to anything, it will transfer to everything. However, one exception will block its transfer (see CE W-In.6:1-3). When true perception is complete, God will take the final step and carry us over into knowledge.

Root meaning: What is true, real, fact; the opposite of illusion.

ACIM: Transcendental reality or Heaven, beyond time and space, including all ideas inherent in reality. Only that is true, real, only that is Fact. All else is illusion. Truth was created by God. It is total, indivisible, all-inclusive, constant, changeless. It cannot be destroyed and when attacked it does not respond. It cannot be perceived, learned nor believed. It can only be known (see knowledge). It is given; truth is not up to you to establish. Truth is only joy and safety. The truth about you is grandeur, perfection. Yet you have feared truth and denied it (see denial), making illusions instead. Truth and illusions are mutually exclusive. To discover truth you must search out all that interferes with it (see CE T-14.IX.2:1). You must learn to distinguish between truth and illusion, letting illusions go without exception. Then “truth will dawn upon you of itself” (CE T-8.V.13:4). See bringing darkness to light, illusions to truth. See CE W-152.2-5.

The mental stance of being constantly alert and watchful, especially for threat. Vigilance only occurs within the split mind, in which each half is a threat to the other.

1. “The ego exerts maximal vigilance about what it permits into awareness…” (CE T-4.VII.1:4-5). Now we currently exercise vigilance on the ego’s behalf.
2. The Holy Spirit also exerts maximal vigilance, and we must learn to be vigilant on His behalf. We must learn to be alert to all temptation to think with the ego (see response to temptation) and to allow into our minds only what God put there. Then we will go beyond the split mind and thus beyond vigilance. See CE T-6.VII.C, CE T-7.V.

See true perception.

See the Holy Spirit.

Christian: Often used to refer to the Bible or to Jesus as the Logos.

ACIM: The message of salvation that God speaks to us through His Voice (the Holy Spirit) in answer to the separation, by which the separation disappears. Sometimes characterized as a promise God makes to us that we will find salvation in the end (see CE W-355.1:2). Sometimes the Word by which God created His Son (see CE W-276.1:1-3). The one unified Word from which come all the Holy Spirit’s specific words, teaching, and guidance (see CE W-198.6). Basically synonymous with the Atonement, forgiveness, and God’s plan for salvation. This “Word” is not a verbal word, but it is a kind of symbol, which stands for the changelessness of God’s Love. Verbal approximations would thus include “I am as God created me” and “My Son is pure, and holy as Myself” (CE W-276.1:2). It is our function to speak this Word to the world, to let this Word guide our words so that they become human symbols of God’s Word (see CE M-21.5). When we clear away the words we have written on the world (the meanings we have ascribed to it) we will see only God’s Word written on it, transforming it into a symbol of Heaven (see CE W-192.4:1). This is the final perception in which all symbols vanish. Does not refer to the Bible, nor Jesus, nor the Course (though these may in fact reflect the Word of God). See CE W-125.

1. The physical earth and entire physical realm, which is an illusion. A realm of time, in which all things change and have a beginning and an end. A realm of space, in which all things are separate and lonely, trapped in bodies. A realm of fear, in which all things are under constant attack. A realm of pain, because everything attacks and nothing satisfies. A realm of insanity, governed by the “laws” of chaos (see CE T-23.III). A realm of death, in which all things must die. God did not create the world (see CE W-152.6-7), for it is literally Heaven’s diametric opposite (see CE T-16.V.4:2) in which everything is upside down and backwards from reality (see CE T-18.I.5-7:3). It is not our home, for it is not our place of origin, it does not shelter us and we do not belong here. Instead of God creating the world, we made the world as an opposite to Him, a place His Love and Oneness could enter not (see CE W-WI.3.2:1-4), a way of proving the Will of God has been overthrown. It is our projection, which seems to prove that separation, sin, and fear are objective realities thrust on us from without, rather than subjective ideas that we can let go at any time. It is our dream, which was dreamt out of the idea of sin, out of the lesson that “God’s Son is guilty” (CE T-31.I.7:4; see “God’s Son is guiltless”). As such, the very nature of the world is to constantly punish us for our supposed sinfulness and guilt, attacking us with pain, sickness, and death (see CE T-13.I.1:8-4:6). This “proves” that fear is real (and fear is the essence of the ego). And it “proves” that fear of God is justified, for we assume that God made this world of fear and death. The world has no objective existence: “There is no world!” (CE W-132.6:1). It is merely a set of ideas inside our sleeping minds in Heaven. The world will disappear when we let this set of ideas go (see CE M-14). Rather than trying to change the world to suit our wishes, we must choose to see the world differently. The Holy Spirit sees it as a teaching device for bringing us home (see CE T-5.IV.14:3), as “a place where the Son of God finds his freedom” (CE W-57.3:6), as a place whose only purpose is forgiveness (see CE M-14.2:1-5). He teaches us to see the real world.
2. The global community of minds that are asleep, need saving, and will eventually return to Heaven. It is important to distinguish between this sense of “world” and the preceding one. When the Course says, “I was persecuted as the world judges” (CE T-6.I.10:1), it does not mean “as the mountains and trees judge”; it means as the human race judges. Likewise, when the Course says, “Our true purpose is to save the world” (CE W-153.8:1), it does not mean saving the forms of the world, but rather saving the minds.

See CE T-18.VIII.3:5-6:3, CE T-25.VII.5-6:3, CE W-132.

The opposite of right-mindedness, the state of mind based on the ego’s thought system, which is the source of false perception (see description in true perception) and of all human ills. “Wrong-mindedness listens to the ego and makes illusions, perceiving sin and justifying anger, and seeing guilt, disease, and death as real.”  (CE C-1.4:8). Used only in the first four chapters of the Text and clarified in the Clarification of Terms.

The person the Course addresses itself to. A sleeping Son of God, who remains in Heaven, part of the Christ and at one with God, yet who dreams that he is an ego, a frail, sinful human being living in a body in the world of space and time. The tiny part of your total identity that is asleep and needs redemption, that has a separated or split mind, that thinks private thoughts, experiences painful emotions and can choose (see choice) between the ego and the Holy Spirit. Not the ego, for the ego is only an idea in your mind, a self-concept you have mistaken for yourself. It is not real and cannot be redeemed. Not the Christ, strictly speaking, for the Christ cannot fall asleep. However, since in Heaven part and whole are one, the part of you that is asleep and dreaming is one with your entire Self, the Christ. It is already perfect and redeemed. CE T-6.V.8-9:2.