The idea of “set” is among the better psychological concepts. Actually,
it is used quite frequently in the Bible and also in this course under
many different terms. For example,“God will keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed (or set) on Him,” a statement which means that
God’s peace is set in the Holy Spirit because it is
fixed on God. It is also fixed in you. You, then, ARE fixed in the peace
of God. The concept of “Fixation” is also a very helpful one which Freud
understood perfectly. Unfortunately, he lost his understanding because
he was afraid, and, as you know all too well, fear is incompatible with
good judgement. Fear distorts thinking, and therefore DISorders thought.

Freud’s system of thought was extremely ingenious because Freud was
extremely ingenious, and a mind MUST endow its thoughts with its own
attributes. This is its inherent strength, although it may misuse its
power. Freud lost much of the potential value of his thought system
because he did NOT include himself in it. This is a dissociated state
because the thinker cuts himself off from his thoughts. Freud’s thought
was so conflicted that he could not have retained his sanity as HE saw
it WITHOUT dissociation. That is why the many contradictions which are
quite apparent in his thinking became increasingly less apparent to HIM.
A man who knows what fixation really means and yet does not yield to it
is terribly afraid.

Fixation is the pull of God, on Whom your mind IS fixed because of the
Holy Spirit’s irrevocable set. “Irrevocable” means “cannot be called
back or redirected.” The irrevocable nature of the Holy Spirit’s set is
the basis for His unequivocal Voice. The Holy Spirit NEVER changes His
mind. Clarity of thought CANNOT occur under conditions of vacillation.
Unless a mind is fixed in its purpose it is NOT clear. Clarity literally
means the state of light, and enlightenment IS understanding.
Enlightenment stands UNDER perception because you have denied it as the
REAL foundation of thought. This is the basis for ALL delusional
systems.

The concept of fixation, as Freud saw it, has a number of learning
advantages. First, it recognizes that man can be fixated at a point in
development which does NOT accord with a point in time. This clearly
could have been a means toward real release from the time belief had
Freud pursued it with an open mind. Freud, however, suffered all his
life from refusal to allow eternity to dawn upon his mind and enlighten
it truly. As a result, he overlooked NOW entirely, and merely saw the
continuity of past and future.

Second, although Freud misinterpreted what the Holy Spirit
told him, or better, reminded him of, he was too honest to deny more
than was necessary to keep his fear in tolerable bounds as he perceived
the situation. Therefore, he emphasized that the point in development at
which the mind is fixated is more real to ITSELF than the external
reality with which it disagrees. This, again, could have been a powerful
RELEASE mechanism had Freud not decided to involve it in a strong
DEFENSE system because he perceived it as an attack.

Third, although Freud interpreted fixation as involving irrevocable
“danger points” to which the mind could always regress, the concept can
also be interpreted as an irrevocable call to sanity which the mind
cannot LOSE. Freud himself could not accept this interpretation, but
throughout his thought system, the “threat” of fixation remained, and
could never be eliminated by any living human being. Essentially, this
was the basis of Freud’s pessimism, personally as well as theoretically.
He tried every means his very inventive mind could devise to set up a
form of therapy which could enable the mind to escape from fixation
forever, even though he KNEW this was impossible.

This knowledge plagued Freud’s belief in his own thought system at every
turn because he was both an honest man and a healer. He was therefore
only partially insane, and was unable to relinquish the HOPE of release
even though he could not cope with it. The reason for this amount of
detail is because YOU are in the same position. You were eternally
fixated on God in your creation, and the pull of this fixation is so
strong that you will never overcome it. The reason is perfectly clear.
The fixation is on a level so high that it cannot BE surmounted. You are
ALWAYS being pulled back to your Creator because you BELONG to Him.

Do you REALLY believe you can make a voice that can drown out His? Do
you REALLY believe that you can devise a thought system which can
separate you from His? Do you REALLY believe that you can plan for your
safety and joy better than He can? You need be neither careful nor
careless; you need merely cast your cares upon Him because He careth for
YOU. You ARE His care because He loves you. His Voice reminds you always
that all hope is yours BECAUSE of His care. You CANNOT choose to escape
His care because that is not His Will, but you CAN choose to accept His
care and use the infinite power OF His care for all those He created BY
it. There have been many healers who did not heal themselves.

They have not moved mountains by their faith because their faith was not
whole. Some of them have healed the sick at times, but they have not
raised the dead. Unless the healer heals HIMSELF he does NOT believe
that there is no order of difficulty in miracles. He has not learned
that EVERY mind God created is equally worthy of being healed BECAUSE
GOD CREATED IT WHOLE. You are merely asked to return to God the mind as
HE created it. He asks you only for what He gave, knowing that this
giving will heal you. Sanity IS wholeness, and the sanity of your
brothers IS yours.

Why should you listen to the endless insane calls which you think are
made upon you when you KNOW the Voice of God Himself is in you? God
commended His Spirit to you, and asks that you commend yours to Him. He
wills to keep it in perfect peace because you are of one mind and Spirit
with Him. Excluding yourself from the Atonement is the ego’s last-ditch
defense of its OWN existence. It reflects both the ego’s need to
separate, and your willingness to side with its separateness. This
willingness means THAT YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE HEALED.

But the time IS now. You have not been asked to work out the plan of
salvation yourselves because, as I told you before, the remedy is NOT of
your making. God Himself gave you the perfect correction for everything
you have made which is NOT in accord with His holy Will. I have made His
plan perfectly explicit to you, and have also told you of your part in
His plan, and how urgent it is that you fulfill it. There is time for
delay, but there need not be. God weeps at the “sacrifice” of His
Children who believe they are lost to Him.

I have already told you that whenever you are not wholly joyous it is
because you have reacted with a lack of love to some Soul which God
created. Perceiving this as “sin,” you become defensive because you
EXPECT ATTACK. The decision to react in this way, however, is YOURS, and
can therefore be undone. It CANNOT be undone by repentance in the usual
sense, because this implies guilt. If you allow yourself to feel guilty
you will RE-INFORCE the error rather than allow it to be undone FOR you.

Decisions CANNOT be difficult. This is obvious if you realize
that you must ALREADY have made a decision NOT to be wholly joyous if
that is how you feel. Therefore, the first step in the undoing is to
recognize that you ACTIVELY DECIDED WRONGLY, but can

AS ACTIVELY DECIDE OTHERWISE. Be very firm with yourselves in this, and
keep yourselves fully aware of the fact that the undoing process, which
does NOT come from you, is nevertheless WITHIN you because God placed it
there. YOUR part is merely to return your thinking to the point at which
the error was made, and give it over to the Atonement in peace. Say to
yourselves the following as sincerely as you can, remembering that the
Holy Spirit will respond fully to your slightest invitation:

“I must have decided wrongly because I am NOT at peace.
I made the decision myself, but I can also decide otherwise.

I WILL to decide otherwise because I WANT to be at peace.
I do NOT feel guilty because the Holy Spirit will undo all the consequences of
my wrong decision IF I WILL LET HIM.

I WILL to let Him by allowing Him to decide for God for Me.”