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Chapter 2: The Psychological Foundation of Miracles ²

 

6. Fear as Conflicted Will

You have believed that “being afraid” is involuntary. But I have suggested that only constructive acts, that is, the specific application of miracles by me through you, should be reflexive and in this sense involuntary on your part. I indicated that superconscious or Divine Essence control can take off of your hands everything that doesn’t matter, that is, “the things of this world” that must be taken care of in connection with you, and Its Guidance can guide everything that does matter, if you so will.

Because fear doesn’t exist it cannot be controlled by Divine Essence, but because you make it up it can be self-controlled. I cannot control your fear either because to do so I would be intervening between your thoughts and their effects. However, fear’s absence, even temporary, allows miracles, which I do direct in my complete Oneness with Divine Essence.

Fear is always associated with the mind becoming concerned with what isn’t real and therefore doesn’t matter, i.e., with the transitory and non-creative. The correction of fear is therefore a matter of your will, because fear’s presence shows that you have raised the unimportant to a higher level of attention than it warrants. You have thus brought it under your will, where it does not belong. This means you feel responsible for it. The level confusion here is perfectly obvious.

The reason that I cannot control fear for you is that you are attempting to raise to the creative level of mind what properly belongs to the unimportant minutiae of the physical level of experience. I do not foster level confusion, but I do support your will in correcting it.

You would not tolerate unacceptable behavior on your part being acted out through your body, and would hardly put forth the excuse that you could not help it. Why then would you tolerate nonsensical thinking on your part? There is a fallacy here you would do well to observe clearly. You may believe that you are responsible for what you do, but not for what you think. The truth is that you are responsible for what you think, because it is only at this level that you can exercise choice. What you do comes from what you think. You cannot separate this truth by giving autonomy to your behavior. This is directed by me automatically whenever you place your miracle impulses under superconscious control.

Whenever you are afraid, it is a sure sign that you have allowed your mind to miscreate, i.e., have not allowed Spirit to guide it. It is pointless to believe that controlling the outcome of misthought, that is, your behavior, can result in real healing or Correction. When you are fearful, you have thought and willed wrongly. This is why you feel you are responsible for it. In such situations, to find Peace you must change your mind, not your behavior, and this is a matter of will.

You do not need guidance except at the mind level. Correction belongs only at the level where creation is possible. The term does not really mean anything at the symptom level, where it cannot work because its source remains uncorrected.

The correction of fear is your responsibility. When you ask for release from fear, you are implying that fear’s correction isn’t your responsibility. Therefore rather than asking for release from fear you should ask for help in the condition of your mind that has brought the fear about. This condition always entails a separation between thought and willingness. At the level of thought, you can help it.

You are much too tolerant of mind-wandering, thus passively condoning the mind’s miscreative activity. The particular result never matters, but the fundamental error does. The fundamental Correction is always the same: before you will to do or engage in the very next action or activity in your day, and the one after that, and so on, take a quiet moment to ask me and Spirit if your thought and will are in accord with ours, which you can be sure is in accord with the Divine’s. If you are sure that they are, there will be no fear.

Fear is always a sign of strain that arises whenever the will to do something conflicts with what you do. This situation arises in two major ways:

1. You can will or desire to do conflicting things, either simultaneously or successively. This produces conflicting behavior, which would be tolerable to the self (though not necessarily to others) except for the fact that the part of the will that wants something not received becomes disappointed, frustrated, outraged, etc.
2. You can behave or act as you think you should, but without entirely willing or desiring to do so. This produces consistent behavior, but entails great strain within the self.

If you think about it, you will realize that in both cases your thought, will and behavior are out of accord, resulting in a situation in which you are either not doing what you believe you want or doing what you believe do not want. This arouses a sense of coercion, which usually produces inner rage. Anger then invades the mind, and mis-projection becomes likely. Anxiety or depression are virtually certain.

Remember that whenever there is fear, it is because you have not made up your mind. Your will is split, and your behavior inevitably becomes erratic. Correcting at the behavior level can shift the error from the first type of inner conflict (willing or desiring to do conflicting things) to the second (behaving or acting as you think you should but without entirely willing or desiring to do so), but will not obliterate the fear.

It is possible to reach a state in which you give your thoughts to Spirit to guide and bring your will under my direction without much conscious effort, but this implies the kind of response pattern you may not have developed dependably yet. Spirit will not ask more than you are able to do. The strength to do comes from your own undivided will to do. There is no strain in doing the Divine’s Will as soon as It is also your own.

The lesson here is quite simple, but particularly apt to be overlooked. I will therefore repeat it, urging you to really take it in. Only your mind can produce fear. It does so whenever it wanders and miscreates through becoming conflicted in what it wills, thus producing inevitable strain, because willing and doing (behavior) become discordant. This cannot be corrected by better doing. But it can be corrected by clearer thinking and willing that are therefore united.

After taking the first corrective step – knowing that you are experiencing fear when you are experiencing it – you might benefit temporarily by adding another next step before going on with the corrective process. Try saying to yourself that somehow or somewhere you must have willed not to love, or the fear that arises from will-behavior conflict could not have happened. Then follow the previous instruction regarding asking if your thought and will are in accord with mine and Spirit’s.

If you consider what the process really means, it is nothing more than a series of pragmatic steps in the larger process of accepting the Atonement for yourself as the Remedy to all problems. From this viewpoint, the steps can be reworded as follows. Recognize:

1. First that what you are feeling is fear.
2. That fear arises from lack of Love.
3. That the only Remedy for lack of Love is perfect Love.
4. That the Atonement is perfect Love, and need only be accepted.

It has been emphasized that the miracle, and the Atonement of which it is a part, are always signs of real respect from the worthy to the worthy. This Worth is reestablished in awareness by the Atonement. It may become obvious, then, that when you are afraid it is because you have placed yourself in a position where you need Atonement because you have done something loveless or without worth, having willed without Love. This is precisely the situation for which the Atonement was created and offered. The need for the Remedy inspired Its creation.

As long as you feel or even recognize only the need for remedy, you will remain fearful. However, as soon as you accept the Remedy, you will have also abolished the fear. This is how true healing occurs.

The conflict or split between thought, will and behavior is a major problem we must solve because it undoubtedly interferes with you integrating with your true Identity. To the extent that you hold onto this split, believing it offers something of value, the longer it will take you to get through fear, and the more noticeably will this interfere with your own integration efforts. Reliance may safely be placed on me to help you resolve any conflict in what you think or believe you want, and likewise on Spirit. This reliance will be sufficient once you ask for help with conflicting wants without distancing yourself from yourself because of your fear of not getting what you believe you want, or of getting what you believe you don’t want. Your reliance on Spirit’s and my Help will be strengthened through a continual affirmation of the Goal we want to achieve together, and an awareness of Its inevitability. In this way, you will both perceive and know your true Worth, and the importance of maintaining a complete, unsplit identification. However, distantiation will result in division in loyalties between your old habits and your new orientation.

In moments of feeling hopeless that the Goal of Integration is achievable, it may help if you say this prayer:

“I ask that my will be united with yours, Creator, recognizing that your perfect Love will suffice and correct for my imperfect love. I ask to accept the Atonement for myself with conviction in this moment, recognizing Its inestimable Worth, and my own Divine Worth as part of my identification with It and you. I ask that my fear be replaced by an active sense of perfect Love and your constant willingness to help me overcome my conflicted or divided will, which is the faulty mechanism behind my difficulty with this. I affirm my true will in both accepting and acting upon the Atonement Principle. Here I am, Creator.”