Perhaps some of our concepts will become clearer and more personally
meaningful if the ego’s use of guilt is clarified. The ego has a purpose,
just as the Holy Spirit has. The ego’s purpose is FEAR, because ONLY the
fearful can BE egotistic. The ego’s logic is as impeccable as that of
the Holy Spirit because your mind has all the means at its disposal to
side with Heaven or earth, as it elects. But again, let us remember that
both are in YOU. In Heaven there is no guilt because the Kingdom is
attained through the Atonement, which releases you to create. The word
“create” is appropriate here because, once what YOU have made is undone
by the Holy Spirit,
the blessed residue is restored, and therefore continues in creation.
What is truly blessed is incapable of giving rise to guilt, and

MUST give rise to joy. This makes it invulnerable to the ego because its
peace is unassailable. It is invulnerable to disruption BECAUSE it is
whole. Guilt is ALWAYS disruptive. Anything that engenders fear is
divisive because it obeys the law of division. If the ego is the symbol
of the separation, it is also the symbol of guilt. Guilt is more than
merely not of God. It is the symbol of the ATTACK on God. This is a
totally meaningless concept EXCEPT to the ego, but do not underestimate
the power of the ego’s belief in it. This is the belief from which ALL
guilt really stems.

The ego IS the part of the mind which believes in division. How can part
of God detach itself WITHOUT believing it is attacking Him? We spoke
before of the authority problem as involving the concept of USURPING
God’s power. The ego believes that this is what YOU did because it
believes it IS you. It follows, then, that if you identify WITH the ego,
you MUST perceive yourself as guilty. Whenever you respond to your ego
you WILL experience guilt, and you WILL fear punishment. The ego is
quite literally a fearful thought.

However ridiculous the idea of attacking God may be to the SANE mind,
never forget that the ego is NOT sane. It represents a delusional
system, and it speaks FOR it. Listening to the ego’s voice MEANS that
you believe it is possible to attack God. You believe that a part of Him
has been torn away by YOU. The classic picture of fear of retaliation
FROM WITHOUT then follows because the severity of the guilt is so acute
that it MUST be projected. Although Freud was wrong about the basic
conflict itself, he was very accurate in describing its effects.

Whatever you accept INTO your mind has reality for you. It is, however,
only your ACCEPTANCE of it that makes it real. If you enthrone the ego
in it, the fact that you have accepted it or allowed it to enter MAKES
it your reality. This is because the mind, as God created it, IS capable
of creating reality. We said before that you must learn to think WITH
God. To think with Him is to think LIKE Him. This engenders joy, not
guilt, because it is natural. Guilt is a sure sign that your thinking is
UNnatural. Perverted thinking will ALWAYS be
attended with guilt because it IS the belief in sin.

The ego does not perceive sin as a lack of love. It perceives sin as a
POSITIVE ACT OF ASSAULT. This is an interpretation which is necessary to
the ego’s survival because, as soon as you regard sin as a LACK, you
will automatically attempt to remedy the situation. And you will
succeed. The ego regards this as doom, but YOU must learn to regard it as
freedom. The guiltless mind CANNOT suffer. Being sane, it heals the body
because IT has been healed. The sane mind cannot conceive of illness
because it cannot conceive of attacking anyone or anything.

We said before that illness is a form of magic. It might be better to
say that it is a form of magical solution. The ego believes that by
punishing ITSELF it will mitigate the punishment of God. Yet even in
this it is arrogant. It attributes to God a punishing intent, and then
takes over this intent as its OWN prerogative. It tries to usurp ALL the
functions of God as it perceives them because it recognizes that only
total allegiance can be trusted.

The ego cannot OPPOSE the laws of God any more than YOU can, but it can
INTERPRET them according to what it wants, just as YOU can. That is why
the question, “What DO you want?” must be answered. You ARE answering it
every minute and every second, and each moment of decision is a
judgement which is anything BUT ineffectual. Its effects will follow
automatically UNTIL THE DECISION IS CHANGED. This is repeated here
because you have not learned it. But again, your decision can be UNMADE
as well as made. Remember, though, that the ALTERNATIVES are
unalterable.

The Holy Spirit, like the ego, is a decision. Together they constitute
all the alternatives which the mind can accept and obey. The ego and the
Holy Spirit are the ONLY choices open to you. God created one, and so
you CANNOT eradicate it. YOU made the other, and so you CAN. ONLY what
God creates is irreversible and unchangeable. What YOU have made can
always be changed because, when you do not think LIKE God, you are not
really thinking at all. Delusional ideas are not real thoughts, although
you CAN believe in them. But you are wrong. The function of thought
comes FROM God and is IN God. As part of His Thought, you cannot think
APART from Him.

Irrational thought is a thought DISORDER. God Himself orders your
thought because your thought was created BY Him. Guilt feelings are
always a sign that you do not know this. They also show that you believe
you can think apart from God AND WANT TO. Every thought disorder is
attended by guilt at its inception and maintained by guilt in its
continuance. Guilt is inescapable for those who believe they order their
own thought and must therefore obey its orders. This makes them feel
RESPONSIBLE for their mind errors, without recognizing that, by
ACCEPTING this responsibility, they are really reacting irresponsibly.
If the SOLE responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the
Atonement for himself, and I assure you that it is, then the
responsibility for what is atoned FOR cannot BE yours.

The dilemma cannot be resolved except by accepting the solution of
UNDOING. You WOULD be responsible for the effects of all your wrong
thinking if it could not be undone. The purpose of the Atonement is to
save the past in purified form only. If you accept the remedy for a
thought disorder, and a remedy whose efficacy is beyond doubt, how can
its symptoms remain? You have reason to question the validity of symptom
cure, but NO-ONE believes that the symptoms can remain if the underlying
CAUSE is removed.