Attitudes toward the body are attitudes toward ATTACK. The ego’s
definitions of EVERYTHING are childish, and always based on what it
believes a thing is FOR. This is because it is incapable of true
generalizations, and equates what it sees with the function IT ascribes
to it. It does NOT equate it with what it IS. To the ego, the body is to
ATTACK with. Equating YOU with the body, it teaches that YOU are to
attack with because this is what it believes. The body, then, is not the
source of its own health. The body’s condition lies solely in your
interpretation of its function.

The reason why definitions in terms of function are inferior is that
they may well be inaccurate. Functions are part of being since they
arise from it, but the relationship is not reciprocal. The whole DOES
define the part, but the part does NOT define the whole. This is as true
of knowledge as it is of perception. The reason to KNOW in part is to
know ENTIRELY is because of the fundamental DIFFERENCE between knowledge
and perception. In perception
the whole is built up of parts, which CAN separate and reassemble in
different constellations. Knowledge never changes, so ITS constellation
is permanent. The only areas in which part-whole relationships have ANY
meaning are those in which change is possible. There IS no difference
between the whole and the part where change is impossible.

The body exists in a world which SEEMS to contain two voices which are
fighting for its possession. In this perceived constellation, the body
is regarded as capable of shifting its control from one to the other,
making the concept of both health AND sickness possible. The ego makes a
fundamental confusion between means and ends as it always does.
Regarding the body as an end, the ego has no REAL use for it because it
is NOT an end. You must have noticed an outstanding characteristic of
every end that the ego has accepted as its own. When you have achieved
it, IT HAS NOT SATISFIED YOU. This is why the ego is forced to shift
from one end to another without ceasing, so that YOU will continue to
hope that it can yet offer you something.

It has been particularly difficult to overcome the ego’s belief in the
body as an end because this is synonymous with the belief in ATTACK as
an end. The ego has a real INVESTMENT in sickness. If you are sick, how
can you OBJECT to the ego’s firm belief that you are NOT invulnerable?
This is a particularly appealing argument from the ego’s point of view
because it obscures the obvious ATTACK which underlies the sickness. If
you accepted THIS and also decided AGAINST attack, you could not give
this false witness to the ego’s stand.

It is hard to perceive sickness AS a false witness, because you do not
realize that it IS entirely out of keeping with what you want. This
witness, then, APPEARS to be innocent and trustworthy because you have
not seriously cross-examined him. If you did, you would not consider
sickness such a strong witness on behalf of the ego’s views. A more
honest statement would be as follows:

Those who WANT the ego are predisposed to defend it. Therefore, their
choice of witnesses should be suspect from the beginning. The ego does
not call upon witnesses who would disagree with its case, NOR DOES THE
HOLY Spirit. We have said that
judgement IS the function of the Holy Spirit, and one which He is
perfectly equipped to fulfill. The ego, as a judge, gives anything BUT
an impartial judgement. When the ego calls on a witness, it has ALREADY
made the witness an ally.

It is still true that the body has no function of itself because it is
NOT an end. The ego, however, establishes it AS an end because, as such,
it will lose its TRUE function. This is the purpose of EVERYTHING the
ego does. Its sole aim is to lose sight of the function of everything. A
sick body does not make any SENSE. It COULD not make sense because
sickness is not what the body is FOR. Sickness is meaningful only if the
two basic premises on which the ego’s interpretation of the body rests
are true. Specifically, these are that the body is for attack, and that
you ARE a body. Without these premises, sickness is completely
inconceivable.

Sickness is a way of demonstrating that YOU CAN BE HURT. It is a witness
to your frailty, your vulnerability, and your extreme need to depend on
EXTERNAL guidance. The ego uses this as its best argument for your need
for ITS guidance. It dictates endless prescriptions for AVOIDING
catastrophic outcomes. The Holy Spirit, perfectly aware of the same
data, does not bother to analyze them at all. If the data are
meaningless there is no point in considering them. The function of truth
is to collect data which are TRUE. There is no point in trying to make
sense out of meaningless data. ANY way you handle them results in
nothing. The more complicated the results become, the harder it may be
to recognize their nothingness, but it is not necessary to examine all
possible outcomes to which premises give rise to judge them truly.

A learning device is NOT a teacher. IT cannot tell you how YOU feel. YOU
do not know how you feel because you have ACCEPTED the ego’s confusion,
and YOU think that a learning device CAN tell you how you feel. Sickness
is merely another example of your insistence on asking the guidance of a
teacher WHO DOES NOT KNOW THE ANSWER. The ego is INCAPABLE of knowing
how you feel. When we said that the ego does not know ANYTHING, we said
the one thing about the ego that IS wholly true. But there IS a
corollary; if knowledge is being and the ego has no knowledge, then the
ego has no BEING.

You might well ask how the voice of something which does not exist can
be so insistent. Have you seriously considered the distorting power of
something you WANT, even if it is NOT true? You have had many instances
of how what you want can distort what you see and hear. No-one can doubt
the ego’s skill in building up false cases. Nor can anyone doubt your
willingness to listen until YOU will not to tolerate anything EXCEPT
truth. When YOU lay the ego aside, it will be gone. The Holy Spirit’s
Voice is as loud as your willingness to listen. It cannot be louder
without violating your will, which the Holy Spirit seeks to free, but
NEVER to command.

The Holy Spirit teaches you to use your body ONLY to reach your
brothers, so He can teach His message THROUGH you. This will heal them
and THEREFORE heal YOU. Everything used in accordance with its function
as the Holy Spirit sees it CANNOT be sick. Everything used otherwise IS.
Do not allow the body to be a mirror of a split mind. Do not let it be
an image of your own perception of littleness. Do not let it reflect
your will to attack. Health is the natural state of anything whose
interpretation is left to the Holy Spirit, Who perceives no attack on
anything. Health is the result of relinquishing ALL attempts to use the
body lovelessly. Health is the beginning of the proper perspective on
life under the guidance of the one Teacher Who knows what life IS, being
the Voice for Life Itself.