In this these lessons we will go deeper, passing by the obvious in this world, looking at the underlying causes of things. It is amazing work and so enlightening and rewarding. Welcome to this adventure.

Lesson 15: My thoughts are images that I have made.

It appears as if you see things “out there” but what you call “seeing” is merely images made from your thoughts, projected onto the world. The world serves as a backdrop, then, for your images, similar to the way a movie screen is the backdrop to portray the images from a movie projector. Neither set of images is real.

What you are seeing is “nothing” made to appear as “something.” It is all part of an elaborate dream. The “landscape” is really a “dreamscape.” The world is an illusion that the separated ones made up for something to play with and to be amused by. The fact that it turned against them at times was perhaps unanticipated. Yet it is a mistake that can be corrected.

“Everything the body’s eyes can see is a mistake, an error in perception, a distorted

fragment of the whole without the meaning that the whole would give.” (T-22.III.4:3)

“The body’s eyes see only form. They cannot see beyond what they were made to see.

And the body’s eyes were made to look on error and not see past it.” (T-22.III.5:3-5)

This is the function you have given your body’s eyes. It is not seeing. It is image making. It takes the place of seeing, replacing vision with illusions. You will begin to understand that this is true when you have seen little edges of light around the same familiar objects which you see now. That is the beginning of real vision, and it will come quickly when this has occurred.

“Light episodes” may take many different forms, and they are signs that you are opening your eyes at last. They symbolize true perception, yet they are not knowledge (which has nothing to do with perception or symbolism), but they do prepare the way for it.

Lesson 16: I have no neutral thoughts.

Today’s idea is a beginning step in dispelling the belief that your thoughts have no effect. There is no such thing as an “idle” thought. What gives rise to the perception of a whole world can hardly be called idle, especially when the actions you take are based upon these thoughts. Every thought you have contributes to truth or to illusion. Everything you see is the result of your thoughts. Wars are begun over “thoughts.” And peace is wrought with a thought.

Therefore, thoughts are not big or little; powerful or weak, good or bad. They are merely true or false. Salvation requires that you also recognize that every thought you have brings either peace or war, either love or fear. A neutral result is impossible, because a neutral thought is impossible . . . think on this.

There is such a temptation to dismiss fear thoughts as unimportant, trivial and not worth bothering about, that it is essential that you recognize them all as equally destructive, but equally unreal. To dwell on them, however, is to give them more of an effect than they would otherwise have. Therefore, it is important to exchange them for thoughts of love and to see the light instead of the dark, before they have a chance to mushroom. The Holy Spirit will help you to do this – just ask Him. A call for help or for love is always answered. No call to Him can go unanswered as He is here for YOU. He is within your holy mind, always ready to be of true help and to bring you Home.

Lesson 17: I see no neutral things.

This idea is another step in the direction of identifying cause and effect as it really operates in the world. You see no neutral things because you have no neutral thoughts. It is always the thought that comes first, despite the temptation to believe that it is the other way around.

This is, however, not what the world thinks. It thinks the feeling comes first and then the thought. The thought always comes first, yet sometimes it comes so quickly and disappears just as quickly that you do not realize that you had a thought at all. But if you have a feeling, you must have had a thought first that caused it because feelings are effects, and an effect does not exist without a cause. The thought, therefore, is the cause of the “feeling.”

In this lesson we learn:

“Regardless of what you may believe, you do not see anything that is really alive or really joyous.

That is because you are unaware as yet of any thought that is really true, and therefore really happy.”

(W-17.3:2-3)

Perfect happiness is the will of God for all His Sons. Yet perfect happiness can only come from God, as only He is perfect. His love and happiness is but reflected in this world. Since you “see” nothing as it is now (Lesson 9), and your “thoughts” do not mean anything (Lesson 10), then you must have only a limited idea of what is really alive or really joyous.

Do not hold back your aliveness or your happiness or joy. Instead, join with God and see yourselves as He created you and not as you appear to be, and then you will be set free to enjoy the truth of perfect happiness as per His Will. Is perfect happiness a worthy goal? Of course! Then so be it. Will to see and to think with Him.

Lesson 18: I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my seeing.

We said earlier that your dysfunctional seeing and thinking is experienced by all of the separated ones. Yet that does not give it credence; it merely attests to the fact that all will benefit from vision. The idea for today emphasizes the idea that minds are joined. By opening your mind to love, you can be a conduit of love for the entire world and beyond, as love knows no limits.

“A miracle is never lost. It may touch many people you have not even met,

and produce undreamed of changes in situations of which you are not even aware.”

(T-1.I.45:1-2)

Lesson 19: I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts.

The order of thinking and perceiving does not matter. Thinking and its results are really simultaneous, for cause and effect are never separate.

Example: a baseball flying through your window causes the glass to be broken. Which happens first? The baseball passing through the pane of the glass, or the glass breaking? Obviously both happen at once. The window would not break if the ball was not thrown, and the ball could not pass through the window if it did not break. They are simultaneous acts.

In this lesson it is again emphasized that minds are joined. This is rarely a wholly welcome idea at first, since it seems to carry with it an enormous sense of responsibility, and may even be regarded as an “invasion of privacy.” Yet it is a fact that there are no private thoughts. Despite your initial resistance to this idea, you will yet understand that it must be true if salvation is possible at all. Salvation is joining with the Will of God, not separation. You are mind in the Mind of God. So all minds must be joined in His Mind as One. Salvation must be possible as it is the Will of God.

Lesson 20: I am determined to see.

Physical things are plainly in the open for you to “see,” even though they are but images that you have made. Focusing on the physical, you may be unaware of what lies in the invisible realm, yet it is still definitely evident if one is awake and aware that what the body’s eyes focus on is not there.

Your decision to see is all that vision requires. In your determination to see is vision given you.

“You can see (any situation, person or event that upsets you) differently, and you will.

What you desire you will see. Such is the real law of cause and effect as it operates in the world.”

(W-20.5:4-6)

Remember, you want to see things differently. You want salvation. You want to be happy. You want peace. You do not have them now, because your mind is totally undisciplined, and you cannot distinguish between joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, love and fear. To you, what appears as pleasure may actually be hiding pain from you. What appears as pain to you now may actually turn into the clearest lesson in love you can imagine – once you see it differently. You are now learning how to tell them apart. And great indeed will be your reward when vision takes the place of seeing.

God has one Son, and he is the resurrection and the life. His will is done because all power is given him in Heaven and on earth. In your determination to see, therefore, is vision given you. Vision is what you truly want. You are determined to change your present state for a better one, and one you really want. This is why you are here. You can see differently, and you will. What you desire you will see. This is the real law of cause and effect as it operates in the world.

Lesson 21: I am determined to see things differently.

This lesson deals with specific persons, places and things and particular situations that appear to annoy you from the past, present or anticipated future. The annoyance may range from mild irritation to rage. The degree of the emotion you experience does not matter. You will become increasingly aware that a slight twinge of annoyance is nothing but a veil drawn over intense fury.

You do not really recognize what arouses anger in you. Certain triggers may ignite a reaction, but the actual basis of the anger or other emotion is not necessarily based on the trigger, but upon something deeper, maybe something hidden so deeply that you were not even aware of it. Yet though some anger appears to be from more obvious reasons and may appear more justified, this is not so. Your anger is not limited to one aspect or another. It is from distorted perception in any case.

“You see what you believe is there, and you believe it is there because you want it there.

Perception has no other law than this.”

(T-25.III.I:3-4)

Therefore, choose to see yourself only as God created you, and this truth will set you free. ❤