Sane Perception: When Confusion is Really Unwillingness to See | ACIM Deep Dive @ Lake Whatcom, WA | December 24, 2025

What if the moments you call “confusion” are actually choices that keep you small? We dive into Chapter Three’s teaching on sane perception and uncover how the ego turns “I don’t get it” into a shield against growth. Rather than treating study as strain, we frame it as mind training: watch the thought, question the meaning, and listen for the voice that loves you. That simple shift closes the gap between reading wise words and recognizing truth in the heat of your day.

We also tackle a challenging idea with care: cognitive limitations can be seen as temporary safeguards agreed upon at the level of mind—limits that check a strong but misdirected will. Through this lens, disability becomes a classroom for everyone involved. Parents, siblings, caregivers, and friends are invited into lessons of compassion, non‑comparison, and acceptance. The person with the limitation teaches innocence simply by being, while others practice seeing beyond form. Crucially, the same appearance can serve healing or harm depending on purpose; pity and labels reinforce separation, while love recognizes unbroken awareness.

Then we name a slippery defense the ego loves: pseudo‑retardation, the posture of “I can’t learn this.” That stance quietly attacks both you and your teacher—making your mind appear weak and your guide appear unclear—breeding anxiety and distrust. The fix isn’t force; it’s willingness. Catch the reflex, decline to identify with it, and let clarity meet you. When you stop claiming incapacity, you remember what is truly willed: peace now, not someday. Instead of extending time through detours, you collapse it by choosing the purpose you share with your inner teacher. Study gets lighter, practice gets honest, and recycled problems lose their grip.

If this conversation helps you see one defense and set it down, share it with a friend, subscribe for more deep dives, and leave a review with the biggest belief you’re ready to reinterpret. Your clarity helps all of us grow.

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting Up Chapter Three
• 2:14 Study As Mind Training
• 7:45 Defenses Reinterpreted By Holy Spirit
• 12:12 Mental Retardation As Temporary Safeguard
• 20:05 Lessons For Families And Caregivers
• 27:20 From Bad Learner To Good Learner
• 33:12 When Limitation Becomes Ego’s Defense
• 39:10 Pseudo‑Retardation And Avoiding Responsibility
• 46:30 Catching The “I’m Confused” Posture
• 53:15 The Joint Attack On You And Jesus
• 58:20 Fear From Pretending Not To Understand
• 1:03:50 Knowing What Is Really Willed
• 1:11:00 Choosing Clarity And Closing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:05

Aloha, and welcome to a Course in Miracles Deep Dive with Hope Johnson. Today we're going into chapter three. We just started chapter three last week, and we're getting into paragraph two. Paragraph two, sentence two of chapter three, and that's in A Course in Miracles, the purplish maroon edict edition that came out in 2021. Complete annotated edition. That's what we're working with here. So, yay, let's tune in. Ah, gratitude for everyone joining here today. For Jesus for these sweet words of wisdom coming through a Course in Miracles, and for our willingness to see that all has been accomplished and all of our problems are solved already. And to see past confusion, what Jesus is calling mental retardation. That's what we're getting into today. So let's have a beautiful joining and remembrance. Yay! Aloha, everyone. Oh yeah. Welcome. Okay. So what we're gonna do. Yeah, what we're gonna do is get into this new chapter. We just started it. We finished all of paragraph one, which was nine sentences, and the first sentence in paragraph two. So let's just have a little bit of a refresher what we've already established so far in this chapter. So the chapter is called sane perception, and it starts with the need to study. This is where Jesus is reframing learning and noticing what is it for? It's for this sane perception. He was saying how learning isn't passive, it involves attention and it involves your willingness. Right? And study itself, it doesn't mean effort or strain, but he did urge us to set aside time to study. You know, it's letting the mind focus on the truth rather than all of the world's uh drama and responsibilities and all of that stuff. It'll just take up the whole day if you don't uh schedule time to study. That was also one of them. And it's a mind training course. So recognizing this is a mind training course. This is not so you can go out and change the world, the world is a reflection of a mind. So change to the world does occur because the world is an effect of the mind, and this is mind training. So the mind is not like it's broken and it's getting fixed by this, it's just that it's super powerful and it's been trained by the ego in fearful things and separation and in defense. So without time set aside for retraining the mind, this is all just beautiful poetry in a course in miracles. So through a Course in Miracles, we're learning to trust our joining and our inherent safety and the love between us. What I notice is that's how I can see through patterns when I recognize my safety. Because a uh a body contraction represents that something's taken as a threat right now. So that makes it easy to see, all right. If that if if something seems to be a threat, that must be a mistaken thought. That thought can be corrected through mind training. So, what is mind training, anyways? It's learning to watch your thoughts, question the interpretation being made, and choose consciousness consciously the interpretation that you would accept for yourself. It's listening for a different voice, being trained to listen for the voice that loves you. When Jesus said good students assign study periods, he's not imposing any discipline on anyone. He's just saying if your mind values this, you have to give time to it too. You can't just value it. You actually yeah, the Course in Miracles, I value this, but you you know, it's like being willing to listen in the moment, assigning time for doing that. So it's your choice if you want to do that still, he's not commanding you to do it. If you want to listen to the voice for truth, or you want to stay in blame, shame, projection, right? Basically insanity, and to make your study periods as symbols of your readiness and willingness, not being rigid about it. Especially in the early lessons of A Course in Miracles, Jesus talks about how uh if you're not feeling like you're drawn to doing this, wait. Uh, if your day is full, there's other things that you seem to need to attend to in the morning. Wait and look for the first available time to make space. But just doing that, making space, writing it in your calendar, typing it in, making a mental note that you're gonna have space this many minutes, could be one minute, some space for hearing the truth. The ego will keep recycling problems even after correction for them have has been given. So this is a constant coming into the knowing of what's true through experience. So even after an answer's been given, let's say uh the reset the ego is recycling the same thing. Oh, it seems like this person still hates you. And you know, people will tell me that that they still this person still hates me. For instance, my mom hates me or something like that. Um so so with the ego, keep on recycling it back around again and again, as you see more clearly, you see that all there is to do with this is recognize what it's for. Recognize what this is for. What is this feeling? Okay, uh, my mom hates me, for instance. How does that feel when you uh are uh uh interacting with that thought and making it real? You know, it's like, oh, there's so there's so it there's so uh many ways to look at it. Uh and uh a lot of them actually resonate with peace. You know, one of them that just comes to my mind right now, oh, thank goodness my mom is uh uh working out everything she needs to work out through pretending she doesn't like me. I know she loves me. You know, letting people have their uh experience. They need to have their experience, right? And when you let other people have your have their experience, what's going on is you're not judging and condemning your experience. And truly, that's what it means to be uh embodied, like you could say, Christ embodied is to be willing to see as Christ above everything else, above all the different things that are being shown. It's like, oh, I must be bad because this is happening, for instance. No, everything that seems to be happening is a means for you. So it's like the the answer, let's say the answer is given and you're aware that it's a blessing, whatever you're perceiving. The upset feeling about it is going to keep on recycling through again and again and again and again. That's why you have to be centered in what's true to keep seeing through it until it doesn't even seem to be a problem anymore. I notice people's behavior just uh change, it'll just change because I'll be like, that can't be true. It must be coming from me. You know, it must be uh some kind of interference in the field. Oh, good, that's awesome. So study closes the gap between knowing what the word says and actually recognizing it in the moment. That's why you're making time to study because throughout the day, these things will come up, these recycled problems. It's like you've already had the breakthrough, you've already had the realization, but the same apparent problem keeps coming back. That's why there's a need to study. Jesus also introduced defenses in the few sentences that we read. You know, he was talking about how they're not sins, they're not flaws, they're just uh they're like neutral, or or you could say neural even mechanism. They can serve the error, they can serve error, they can serve the the illusion, or they can serve the truth. It depends on the purpose you give to them. So the ego uses limitations, apparent limitations, as defenses. For instance, I'm lazy, mental retardation. We get into that too. Uh, we got into that a little bit. We're gonna get into that a lot more today. Uh and you know, showing that nothing that's made in the world is beyond the Holy Spirit's use, the Holy Spirit's interpretation. So this sets a foundation for everything.

SPEAKER_02: 11:51

The human body is a defense, yes.

SPEAKER_00: 11:54

Yeah, he's even called it a fence. The body is a fence without the D, the D part. Right. It's like it's everything being subject to the Holy Spirit's reinterpretation. This letting this be the foundation for everything that you perceive, it's all there to be reinterpreted, everything's to be reinterpreted. The world is based on error. So we're not being corrected here for anything wrong, we're just being trained to see the right way. And the reason it's the right way is because it's where our happiness is. That's what makes it right. Yeah. Aw, thank you. Thank you for being here. I love you. So we're starting with paragraph two, sentence two. When it occurs in the literal sense, and what he's talking about here is mental retardation. So when mental retardation occurs in the literal sense, it is a temporary device agreed on beforehand to check the miscreative activities of a strong but misdirected will. So here he's clarifying what mental retardation means when it appears in the literal sense. Right? The the functions aren't uh aren't like, I guess you could say, a normal person, you can say. Okay, detect the miscreative activities of a strong but misdirected will. So he's saying it when it literally appears, he's not talking about symbolically, he's saying in the literal sense. He's saying when it occurs, in the literal sense, literally. So that refers to what the world would call actual cognitive limitation. That's what the world would normally call that. Okay. So he's reframing it so that we're not taking it as some random misfortune, it's not random at all, it's a temporary device. He's saying it is a temporary device. That means a purposeful mechanism chosen at the level of mind. He's saying agreed on beforehand. So he's saying it's not accidental, it's not imposed, it's not a punishment. It's chosen by you before this incarnation, apparent incarnation. Jesus says there's no real incarnations, we're all because incarnation, I think, literally means you're in a body and you're never in a body. He was imagining it as it's passing by your awareness. So he's saying it has a protective and corrective purpose. He's saying, because he's saying to check the miscreative activities of a strong but misdirected will. So it's like a safeguard, it's a limit on how much miscreation you can do in this lifetime. It imposes a limit on it, which you agreed on beforehand. You, they, whatever. I seem to have normal cognitive abilities, right? And there's some people who seem to not have normal cognitive abilities, like they don't be seem to be able to navigate the world. I seem to be able to navigate the world.

SPEAKER_02: 15:52

The the trend to, I don't know how it was. The suspects were in like the 40s and 50s and stuff, but the trend now is oh my gosh, so much uh dementia and Alzheimer's, which is a total the mind is just gone.

SPEAKER_00: 16:08

Yeah. Like these people we can't even well, people are making themselves so freaking sad, right? They're watching the news. Yeah, they're sitting there watching the news, they want to check out, and so yeah, that's a way of checking out. See, it's and it's gonna also be limiting the ego's power to miscreate, which is what you want. You agree to that, right? You agree to that beforehand, and by beforehand, I'm not looking at it like beforehand, as in before birth on a trajectory of time. I'm looking at it as before the illusion where we actually are, where we're actually making real our real decisions, right? It's like here's the here's the trajectory of time just going straight across. And it's like from outside of that, not before it, like at the beginning where there's birth, because there's no beginning like that, it's all happening at once. So depending on how miscreative your mind has been up to a certain point in a lifetime, you may or may not need some dementia. If you could be sure of one thing, if you get dementia, you need it, right? I mean, I would play with that. I start forgetting it. I'm like, oh, awesome. Yeah, I uh I don't remember anything. This is fucking awesome. Let's see. Uh let's see uh how much healing can happen through this. That's always how I like to see things. It's fun. That's what makes it fun, really. Only thing that makes it fun is healing, it makes everything fun. So, yes, it's a safeguard. And basically, it's restricting the ego's ability to project harm, using your creative energy to project harm, right? Limiting the scope of destructive thought. Ooh, evil masterminds. Instead of being an evil mastermind this lifetime, I'm gonna be a retard. Yeah, that's good. That's what we're gonna do. That's what we're doing. It's hilarious, it's fun. All right, and it's only temporary, it's not anyone's identity, it's not any, it's not like that at all. It's only temporary. So the mind being so powerful, all powerful, it could also use that strength against itself in a dream, not for reals, but in a dream. And even this dream is under the coordination of the Holy Spirit, so that we can see to help us see. So that's part of the plan when someone comes out to have any uh cognitive difficulty or mental retardation, as Jesus was putting it here. It's uh it's reducing the number of channels the ego can use to express fear. See, and you can see that in the story of the Alzheimer's, the mass Alzheimer trend going on. It's like the mind is geared toward fear and the brakes are put on it. So the mind always has great creative power, and if that power has been used destructively. The soul you can say, or the mind at the soul level, you can say, chooses, decides to come with a disability, to safeguard itself, to do more learning, to do more seeing. So temporary limitation can be chosen and is chosen as a corrective measure. Do you see that? No one really needs to have Alzheimer's unless they do. Unless their mind is just it's projecting in so much separation and fear that all it can do is drive itself insane. So it's one way to prevent more distortion until the mind is ready for that cognitive ability that allows it to choose rightly, choose toward happiness. It gives them a break. It's only temporary. Remember that. It's not about them, it's not like they did something wrong. We're all not only here for ourselves, but for everyone. So it could shift even in a lifetime. So even the most severe things are purposeful. This reminds me of one friend who was telling me they saw a person who had a deformed face, and they saw one side of the face, and he wanted to uh extend love, share kindness with the person. So he started talking to the person, and the person turned to face him, and the other side of the face was worse than the first side of the face, and it startled him, and he didn't know what to do. He wanted to get the fuck out of there. Isn't that fun? Yeah, so it's so there's nothing wrong, of course, with the way he reacted. There's nothing wrong with that. There's something to see here, there's just something to see here. I was like, oh, this is an apparent uh uh flaw or disability in the world because you're walking around with a face that's shocking the shit out of people, right? Uh the thing is, it's for you, they're doing it for you. There's a there's a teaching there in it, there's an opportunity. You could say there's an opportunity to see. There's an opportunity to see. Oh, this uh this is chosen. When you see that it's chosen, everything changes. It's the idea what's freaking people out is it's the idea that it's not chosen, and it's and it's really an association with an identity. You know, just like, oh, that was major. Well, that's this association with the identity, how upsetting it would be if you had something like that. But no, it wouldn't because you chose it. If you do. If you have it, you chose it. Seeing that they're not a victim. That's what's really important. Seeing that they're not a victim of the world. That's what it's reflecting on, and that's where the upset comes in. When you get the perception that someone's a victim of the world, that reflects in your mind as that being you. The mind doesn't know the difference. That's why it's like, let me get out of here, let me get away from retarded and ugly and old people, for instance. Okay, so when the mind's power is misdirected toward illusions, there's gonna be safeguards appearing. And you know, I would say it's the same thing, like, you know, I had an experience in 2022 where I seem to have fallen off a cliff. I feel like that was such a safeguard. Immediately when I hit the ground, the immediate thought that came to me was, thank you. I just knew it was helpful. You know, if you see all these things as safeguards, you're never gonna be bummed out about whatever seems to occur. It's always, it's always, always, always like that. Everything is always going your way. It's so awesome. All right, paragraph two, sentence three from chapter three. The lesson involves, and the lesson here, again, mental retardation. The lesson involves not only the individual himself, but also his parents, siblings, and all of those who come in close relations with him. Isn't that so fun? It's for everyone. So he's expanding the scope of teaching here, as it's not only for uh the person who seems to have the disability, it's for everyone: parents, siblings, all of those who come in close relations with him. Okay, so this lesson of temporary limitation. Okay, he's saying the lesson, temporary limitation or mental retardation, as he called it, is never just for you. It extends to everyone in relationship, everyone, any and this is really you can apply it to any kind of apparent limitation that you seem to have. So basically, this is reflecting principles of a course in miracles. One, minds are joined, that minds are joined. Okay, miracles, uh miracles are shared, learning is shared, no one awakens alone, and every healing situation is mutual. He's saying that the appearance of limitation, mental retardation is like making it into a classroom for everyone. Parents are included. Look at what the parents represent, they have expectations. Don't let people know. Don't let people know. Some of them are like that. They may feel responsible. Look at how parents feel responsible for it. What did what did I do while I was pregnant? Did I drink some wine? Okay, I'm gonna blame it on that, you know, or feeling burdened by it. If only I didn't have this kid depending on me, I might have enough money to whatever.

SPEAKER_02: 27:50

My clients and her daughter are playing out an interesting thing. She was a nurse and she worked um for decades uh in the the infant ward where uh co uh cocaine babies would come in.

SPEAKER_00: 28:04

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02: 28:05

Um, so she ended up adopting one because she felt so sorry for this little baby. Uh drug addict baby. Uh-huh. Um, and so now she's so irritated with this grown daughter, because grown daughters in her 40s, uh-huh. And she's like, Well, it's my own fault. I knew what I was getting into when I adopted her. That's so cute. But now she feels like this burden because she still takes care of her in her 40s, and she can't get her shit together, and it's yeah, oh, such a burden, but it was my fault, and you haven't yeah, so so so you start with it's such a burden and don't stop there.

SPEAKER_00: 28:45

So then you start justifying why it's a burden, right? See how that's going on, how her mind is moving like that. So, in case you didn't hear Natalie, she's talking about one of her clients who adopted a cocaine baby who's now 40, and she talks about how the how this baby is such a burden because she never gets her shit together. Um, but you know, we could see here first she made the child into a burden, and then she started to justify why that's true, why the child is actually a burden. So then that that that really is cementing it in her mind, and she keeps on going like that. This is what Jesus is talking about that's miscreating, and this is why you sometimes come in as retarded, so you can't keep on doing that for one lifetime. See that? See, the victimization is so deep, and this is really common for people to carry something like that. Oh, well, it's my fault. I did that to yourself to myself. Look, it nothing is a burden because of the fact that nothing is happening, everything can be looked at, everything can be addressed, everything can be handled, and nothing needs to be a burden. See? It's only it's only your thinking that makes it into a burden. So hooray! So that's one way. Parents, right? They feel responsible, they feel burdened. That's what the example that was given. It's an invitation to learn innocence. Look at the innocence that comes out because they don't have a mind that can be crafty, usually. It just goes totally. I noticed with my husband's mom, she went back to being like a child. Happy, happy, happy. You know, you can see that it's a break. It's also an opportunity to learn acceptance, non-judgment. They're being asked through the parents are being asked through the perception of having a uh cognitively limited child uh to release their interpretations of suffering, to release their judgments, to accept completely. Look at the siblings involved. They learn compassion and patience. I know a couple of uh of girls, sisters, and one of them, I don't know what the diagnosis is, but she seems to be like around seven years old, even though she's probably in her 40s now. And uh I noticed when they were they were really young, the sister who had regular cognitive abilities was so compassionate to her older sister, her older sibling. It was really sweet. So yeah, it's that opportunity, non-comparison. That's another one. Um, I have another example. I knew two twins. One had legs and the other one didn't. Yeah, they looked exactly alike, except that feature. And how sweet it was. It's like uh those stories of fairness, specialness, those just go out the window, non-comparison. And they were really attractive girls, like they, you know, dudes would really like them too. And and uh and just the way the sister with the legs would take the sweetest care, and you know, and made sure that her sister without the legs was always treated with the respect and kindness and fairness, too, because that's the way she saw her. So they're all being drawn into lessons. This is all being drawn into lessons to see beyond form. So Jesus says, all of those who come in close relations. So that extends expands it even further. Teachers, caregivers, friends, family, anyone.

SPEAKER_02: 32:56

So this lady in particular, also she is a like diehard buttons something Christian. Okay, also cute, you know. Um so how is it that Jesus, like the real energy of Jesus, can because it's like it's like okay, you know, I think that's it. I'm just like, okay, well, it doesn't really seem like here.

SPEAKER_00: 33:27

Well, she's uh well, she's very she's just just by how you know, and when we're talking, we're not talking about a person, we're talking about mental patterns, everything's temporary. We're we're speaking to see-through, right? So so it sounds like there's a sense that Jesus suffered, and so it's noble to be suffering. So it's it's kind of like this the ego wants you to punish yourself as a substitute for God's punishment. And that's very common. It's like, look, I'm already punishing myself. You know, it's unconscious, that's why we're being pointed into viewing the unconscious mind, recognizing the unconscious mind and what's being played out there. So these relationships give us opportunities to see past body illusion. The brain is part of the body illusion. Everyone's pure awareness. They it cannot be impaired, it doesn't get impaired. So release judgments based on capability, capability, even that's projected. No more fear or pity. When this is seen clearly, there's no more fear or pity for these people. It's recognizing our shared innocence, bringing them that, bringing them back into the heart of innocence. It really takes this uh specialness as far as abilities or uh or looks or anything like that, our concern and restores our shared innocence in our mind.

SPEAKER_03: 35:09

Remembering that nothing real can be threatened.

SPEAKER_00: 35:23

So one person's seeming limitations calls forth love in others. Look at it that way. It's for calling forth love in others. Oh, how sweet. The other people's responses actually become part of their correction, of the correction of their mind, because they've got people treating them differently now, right? So then that that becomes uh part of their own correction because they're perceiving more love, understanding, patience, kindness coming from people. That is something that occurs a lot at this stage, anyways. It's really common in the United States for them to just be treated with so much kindness. You know, people probably with normal cognitive abilities probably look at that and go, fuck, I'd like to have a lifetime where someone's just all everyone's like that with me. What do you need? So the lesson isn't about the condition at all. It has nothing to do with the condition. It's not like the condition is a is a punishment, it has to do with undoing fear and guilt and misperception. That's all. It's not a punishment. So each time that occurs for each one, uh it's closer to seeing differently, closer to responding in truth, in love, without fear. Questioning ego interpretations of worthiness. Notice when it seems like you're not getting something. Recognize our strength. What we share is strength. We don't share weaknesses. Weaknesses are apparent, they're not, they don't really exist, so we can't share them. We share strength, strength in the truth, strength in God, strength in what we are. So in this way, this individual uh with the cognitive limitation, mental retardation, the individual serves as a teacher for the for innocence to many without learning anything just by being in this apparently limited state for temporary. And those around the the person, they serve as teachers of love in return. They don't have the same expectations on them, do they? It seems like it seems like, and it feels like lack of love because those expectations are based on a thought of separation. There's no thought of separation, there's no expectations on people, and they feel that there's more love for them. Aloha, Natalie. Thank you for joining. I want to thank you so much for your donation. That was so sweet. I want you to know I'm gonna have some uh gloves and hat and stuff like that, too. I'm like, yay, thank you. I love you, I appreciate you. It's another Natalie. Isn't that fun? I got one Natalie right here with me, too. All right, there's no questions yet. By the way, I'm looking at you guys. I see. Oh, I see you. So let me know if you have any questions. But since I don't see any, we're gonna go on to sentence four, paragraph two. The person himself, this is the person with the cognitive limitation or mental retardation. Uh, the person himself is a poor learner by definition. Jesus talks about being a poor learner through a course in miracles. The person himself is a poor learner by definition. He can't learn like you guys can learn a course in miracles, is what Jesus is saying, but only as a step toward changing from a bad to a good one. So the person who's a poor learner by definition. Definition, they were already, uh, let's say, before this lifetime, there's really only one time, but it's it's like a progression that we experience. Before this lifetime, they had been so caught up in the illusion that they were miscreated so bad, they were making so much suffering for themselves that they chose to give themselves a lifetime where they have cognitive disability, aka what was called in the 60s, mental retardation. That's why that's what Jesus calls it here. Um so now he's saying the role of the individual, uh, the role of this individual being a poor learner, it's not a it's not a judgment of worth or value of that person. That's just what it is. By definition, they're a poor learner. This is a temporary condition chosen to support their healing as well as everyone they're orchestrated into interaction with. So he says, by definition, he says the person himself is a poor learner by definition, and that's because he's given that chosen limitation. The learning channel itself is intentionally restricted because the mind was set on learning more and more about that which harmed it. So it's getting a break from that. It's a temporary condition chosen to support healing, and it's preventing the person from misusing, or you could say preventing the mind, really, that's what it is. Preventing the mind from misusing its strength. It's just a phase, it's a stage. So next time you see someone with a cognitive disability, maybe it's yourself. I mean, some of us have these different cognitive disabilities where we're mostly functioning, but we seem to have some cognitive disability. Uh, and and and that seems if that seems to be the case, look at it like that. You know, and look at it as a stage, uh a compassion in the learning process to help you or to help them or whatever it is. It's only a step. And that's what Jesus says, but only as a step. Okay, here let's read it again. The person himself is a poor learner by definition, but only as a step toward changing from a bad one or from a bad to a good one. He's talking about bad learner to good learner. So this seeming deficiency, it's transformational. It's for transforming the mind until the mind can get back on track to moving toward what makes it happy. It's so compassionate toward the mind itself because the whole thing is orchestrated toward giving the mind the best opportunity possible to be happy, to live, to live the true purpose and be happy. And that comes from direction of mind. So this is like a bridge from misdirected learning toward true learning.

SPEAKER_02: 43:42

Not a trend that seems to be happening, um that kind of points to uh there's a lot of bad learners that I think of. Um, there's like this trend to in modern psychology to now put sort of there's a blanket thing of like, oh, well, I'm neurodivergent. So it's sort of like, well, I can't take responsibility for the fact that I can't deal socially with people. Um that's just I'm neurodivergent. You can't tell that about me.

SPEAKER_00: 44:12

We'll get to that in the next paragraph, or it might be the next sentence, even. It is coming up. She's talking about people who are using these labels, these psychological labels, as ways to avoid responsibility. Yeah, that actually comes up here. Yeah. So Jesus is talking about bad and good learners here. A bad learner is one who learns fear, separation, and attacking, right? Self-attack. All attack, all self-attack is physical. It's all physical. So people are going through physical pain because of their bad learning. That's all that's the only thing, that's the only thing that causes any kind of sickness or physical pain. Bad learning. So good learner is one who's willing to be receptive to the correction of love, to having their minds corrected toward love so they can go toward being happy. That's what a good learner is. So this is a transition from being a bad learner to a good learner. This mental retardation or cognitive limitation, that's what it is. It's for it's it's for uh transforming the mind from being on one track to being on another track that's helpful. So the limitation is preventing bad learning from continuing in this particular life. It makes conditions where the ego can't reinforce itself as it had been. The ego had been reinforcing itself out of this consciousness. So now for this consciousness, it's chosen that the ego can't do it because there because there's not there's not enough uh uh uh cognitive functioning for that to happen.

unknown: 46:14

Timeout.

SPEAKER_00: 46:15

Timeout you're in you're in you're in a timeout lifetime, isn't that so fun? So it's a gentle way actually of redirecting the mind so that it could be more receptive and willing. So much compassion in this design. I just love it. It's just a sweet way to halt destructive patterns while allowing some learning to occur. The mind is being, you know, he's talking about how it's temporary to redirect it. So there's something is going on there that's helping the mind. It's a it's like a pause and a reset. It's giving a different giving it a different trajectory for learning, one more aligned with the truth. So protection and preparation. Yeah, he's he's going look at it's uh it's a step uh toward changing from a bad one to a good one. It's also protecting the mind. I mean, that is just like really sweet. It's like when you look at something like that and go, oh, that's protection and preparation being played out right there. How sweet. In a good way, not in an ego way of trying to protect something. An ego would want to protect its identity and not have any retardation at all. At least it pretends to. So that what the world is calling an inability, Jesus is calling a step toward readiness. It's also pointing out no one is stuck. No, no condition is a dead end for someone. This is all part of one mind awakening, one mind healing. And it also shows how one lifetime isn't important like that, like people think. Like forgetting what you think you want in the lifetime. It's not like that. Look at the way these lifetimes are being used, they're just these temporary ways to have interaction occur. It's all about relationship, it's all through relationship that we see. It's like a it's like a a controlled uh movie, and this way of controlling it, cognitive disability is for reorienting the mind that's projecting this movie toward truth. So the limitation itself is a means to an end, and it's gentle and it's purposeful. All right, next sentence. Back to mental retardation. No, that's a uh paragraph three. Yeah, it is. We're back to that. So it went to paragraph two, sentence four. Okay, let me check my book here. Paragraph two, sentence four. Yep, we're up to all right, we made it to paragraph three. And we did a full circle back to mental retardation. All right, that's how we start this sentence. All right, mental retardation can also be used, however, as a maladaptive device or no, a maladaptive defense if the wrong or attack side is employed. So now he's saying there's dual potential. He, you know, he was talking about earlier how mental def mental retardation is a defense, and it could be used toward truth or illusion as the mind elects. So now he's talking about the illusion portion, how it could also be used for illusion. Like all the defenses he talked about earlier, how defenses can be used for healing or for harm, except for the atonement. The atonement can only be used for healing. That's the only defense that can only be used for healing. Now he's showing the dual potential here. So the same appearance of limitation can serve truth or illusion depending on the per on the purpose given to it. So even the examples I was giving about how you know people being really sweet to them and stuff like that, also it goes in the other direction, too. So a maladaptive defense means uh the limitation can be co-opted by the ego. It be it could become a way to just to justify separation, reinforcing victimhood, right? From what I've seen, it hasn't been, from what I've seen, anyways. I haven't seen a lot of it. Um, it can go it can block learning instead of facilitate it. So the mind always has a choice, you know. Just because the uh the amount of learning that can occur got slowed down doesn't mean it still won't be used by the ego to protect the ego identity. That prevents correction. The ego wants to maintain fear and avoid responsibility for thought. That's another thing. So the ego loves to obscure the mind's power. You know, when you recognize, no matter what anyone's showing you, that they are all powerful mind, it's kind of like you hand them a gift, like here, this is the truth. And you you only need to know that for yourself, whether you demonstrate anything materially, physically, with words or anything, that's uh that's secondary, that's an effect.

SPEAKER_03: 52:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 52:54

Now he used the word wrong and then or attack in parentheses side. So he says, uh, let me see the the context there. Mental retardation can also be used, however, as a maladaptive defense if the wrong or attack side is employed. So by wrong, he means ego. That's the attack side, that's the mind's capacity for harming himself. Uh that's that's the ego side. So when he says wrong or attack side, that's what he's talking about. Because when the attack side is employed by the mind, that defense of uh mental limitation, cognitive limitation, that becomes now, like Natalie was just saying, a tool for escaping accountability. That's the attack side. That's how the ego would use it. Claiming incapacity as your own identity. Right? Manipulating others through this perception of weakness. You know, you have to take care of me, for instance, just you uh perceiving that you have to be taken care of is showing that you're not that far gone. Cognitive ability, right? Claiming this incapacity as this is my identity, this is who I am, projecting guilt onto others, they're not doing enough for you. That's another one, that's the attack side, and reinforcing the belief that you're damaged or you can't learn or you're limited. So Jesus is saying how even a protective device can be uh misused when the ego is directing it. So the ego will some examples the ego would fixate on the limitation as if it's permanent and interpret it as an accident, an accidental identity, uh fate, whatever. Something that's un unwanted rather than choice. Look at the power in it when you recognize that's a choice. So the ego can block the healing that the limitation was designed to support, and that's just a matter of choosing. It's still always a matter of choosing, nothing's ever being imposed on you. That's awesome. The ego would want to turn that temporary aid, what's been an aid, supposed to be an aid for you, into a long-term entrenchment. So the meaning of any condition, it's always determined by the purpose the mind gives it. Same appearance, same exact appearance can serve awakening or it can serve suffering. It's a choice. The way the mind interprets it is the way the mind uses, uses it, uses that limitation, and either heals the underlying cause of it or projects it further. The underlying cause of it is this mind that keeps projecting for illusion. It needs uh a cognitive limitation for a temporary period of time. That's all. And how helpful it is for everyone and not their identity. It's not like, oh, those poor people. It's like, oh fuck yeah, good job. Oh, I like it. Fun disability. The ego is gonna do its best to prevent the correction that the disability was meant to allow. So noticing that too, because it comes up in your mind. Oh you know, you don't have to look anywhere past that. Noticing a sense of feeling sorry for anyone, the burdened parents, the burdened sibling, the burdened person with the disability. Uh there's a choice here on how you can see that in a way that supports healing. All right, we're on to sentence two of paragraph three. This produces the pseudo-retardation syndrome. Yeah, is that fun or what? Now we got pseudo-retardation syndrome, which is justly, which is justly classified as a psychiatric or disturbed level symptom. There's a footnote about this. Pseudo-retardation occurs when a person of normal ability puts on a guise of retardation in order to achieve certain ends. This is what we're talking about, right? Pseudo-retardation syndrome. So he's saying that there's a misuse. Uh, there's a there's misuse going on as far as this retardation thing, right? When the ego employs the limitation as a defense. That's the ego employing the limitation as a defense. It results in pseudo-retardation. The appearance of the in the incapacity is there, but it's not genuine, it's not actual, it's a disguise, it's a role adopted with the ego under the ego's guidance. People do that all the time. I mean, uh, yeah, I've had I've I've heard people say something like, my ego is immature.

unknown: 59:33

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 59:34

So that's why I can't be responsible or accountable because my ego is immature, right? That's that's what he's talking about. That's pseudo-retardation. Right? Or I have ADHD. I can't get this. Like the yeah, well, you know, you're saying you can't get it. You're basically saying that with the ego, it's not true. So it's a it's sometimes just a guise. So it's a it's a person of normal ability, that's what the footnote is clarifying, pretending to be limited. And that's in order to get something, like to achieve certain goals. All goals in the world are ego-driven, and they can include the goal could be avoiding responsibility, controlling other people through helplessness, eliciting care from people, pity, protection, getting out of consequences, right? Manipulating your relationships totally. Oh well, sorry, I've got this, or I'm like this. My ego, which I'm not this ego, but for the purposes right now, so I can avoid this accountability, I'm gonna say that the ego's got power over me. When I want to look like I'm extra spiritual and get people to like me, then I'm not an ego. But when I want to escape responsibility for the effects that my mind is having, all of a sudden the ego is immature, my ego is immature, and uh by implication, I'm identified with it. Isn't that so much fun?

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:22

Where you know, we could sort of as a society just be like, oh, there's a mentally recharted person, and why's that problem, you know, like that could just be a neutral thing. But there's so much like uh repulsion around that because there is a play going on too where we are we have a lot of self-talk, uh-huh. Of like, I don't know about you, but I have a lot of self-talk, or you know, I'll just be like, God, dumbass, dumbass, or like see someone do something, I'll just be like, God, what is that person? A retard. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:00

So it's all the self-talk. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:02

Like, yeah, like you know, yeah, God, to not have your full mental capacities, like, and just that's so much projected and not realizing the gods, you're just doing that to yourself all day long. That's right. Calling yourself a retard, but not wanting to see that and just making it about other people out of the world.

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:25

Yeah, I definitely saw that kind of talk calm down by recognizing that it's coming from me. I used to always be like, What are you, a dumbass? Just like right in my mind, you know. Yeah, yeah. But from seeing it over and over again and recognizing what it is without resisting it, right? So letting it come across as naturally as it does. You don't have to resist it, but also recognizing that's actually a hurtful thought if you believe in it. You know, there's gonna be effects for believing it. That's true cause and effect, thought effect, like that. So recognizing that's what it is, when it crosses your mind, you can just see that the thought is meaningless, and then that cancels out all of its effects. You know, yeah, it's just it doesn't bother you anymore when you're like, okay, this doesn't mean anything when a thought comes up and goes, what a dumbass. Yeah, for instance. I mean, I've definitely seen that even recently, like, what a dumbass. But it just doesn't bother me because I know what it is. And no one is a dumbass. That's like ridiculous.

SPEAKER_02: 1:04:43

That top going on in my head a lot with my boyfriend. I'll just be like, God, was he just dumbass? Why didn't you do that? So I think that now I'm starting to see that is an avoidance thing. Like, I'm not willing. It's just too quick to come in. And it just feels like it it really glazes things over. I'm like, I don't want to put a little effort into that's an unwatched part of my mind.

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:10

Unwatched mind, right? That one slide a lot. So I think it's thinking that your boyfriend is a dumbass because the way he does things, yeah. So that's your your mind is taking it as you're the dumbass. And you know, it's as if the way he did something wasn't just perfect for you.

unknown: 1:05:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:28

So it's like just seeing that, recognizing what the ego is saying and what's actually true. Everyone's and and the truth is everyone's doing everything for you. So you can be grateful for whatever it is. It's like, yay.

SPEAKER_02: 1:05:45

Yeah, so now when I hear that, pop in my head, I think I'm that I'm gonna let that be a signal, like, oh hey, you got something unlaunched.

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:52

Yep, good. Yeah, that's it's as simple as that. Yeah, it really is. Okay, let's see what he says here. Justly cra okay, uh, which is justly classified. So this this produces, this is a sentence again, this produces the pseudo-retardation syndrome, and the part I'm looking at now, which is justly classified as a psychiatric or desert disturbed level symptom. So justly cla or a syndrome, not symptom, right? Yeah. No, symptom. Okay. This produces the pseudo-retardation syndrome. That's where he says syndrome.

SPEAKER_02: 1:06:43

I bet you there's a modern day, I bet you there's some, what he's talking about, I bet you there's some trendy phrase for that nowadays. Maybe back then there I bet you anything in the modern psychology, there's some besides pseudo-retardation. That's not like popping off the lips of everyone. No, modern. I haven't heard that either.

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:03

There's something, but he may have made it up. We don't know. Pseudo-retardation syndrome, which is justly classified as a psychic. No, maybe he didn't, which is because he's saying it's justly classified as a psychiatric or disturbed level symptom. I'm just gonna look that up.

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:23

Yeah, one of your people is talking about. Oh, yeah, there's this book of the psychiatric diagnosis, and they're always arguing what gets in there, right?

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:33

Yeah, exactly. It's not a recognized modern medical diagnosis in clinical practice currently. Uh, it has appeared historically in older psychiatric and educational literature to refer to situations where a person appears to have delayed intellectual development, but the apparent deficit is due to other factors rather than true cognitive impairment. So, yeah, they're outdated terms. Medical terminology change terminology changed. So they use terms like DSM five or ICD 11. I never heard of these either. All right, so it's justly classified as a psychiatric or disturbed level thinking. So that means uh there's a disturbance, there's definitely a disturbance at the level of mind. Okay. And it's not because of the behavior itself, it's the fear, it's the fear-based purpose behind it. Behind why are they doing this pseudo-retardation thing? It's to shrink their mind's perceived capacity. They may not even think that it's like that themselves. It's to hide from correction. So see how the ego can use the very same thing in a totally different way. It's to preserve an illusion of weakness, right? So that now we have all these different uh mental and you know, changing it from mental retardation. I don't know if that was a service for everyone because now everyone wants to use it. Now that it's not called mental retardation, well, not everyone, but a lot of people want to use it. It's a way of sustaining attack by appearing defenseless because the ego doesn't want to go to true defenselessness. So the mind is powerful enough to imitate limitation, and it can even deceive itself into believing the limitation that it's putting out there. People have seen that a lot too. So this isn't the same as, like, say, someone uh apparently born with Down syndrome syndrome, right? That's a decision from a different level, it's not a decision with the ego. It's not to misalign with the truth, the ego uses these things to misalign with the truth. So the ego would use it as a self-defense uh defense mechanism to control perceptions and control relationships. I see that. It's not actual limitation, it's like weaponizing an appearance of a lip of a limitation. Use it for your own good and take really it's an extractive energy trying to take from the people around you. So earlier we were learning about how any defense can be used for error. Jesus was talking about that, and then even one designed to protect, and here he's talking about how that comes about. The mind, the mind's choice determines the outcome. It's still the mind's choice that determines what the apparent limitation will be used for. So the ego fears being exposed. It'll go to extremes not to be. It wants to avoid responsibility for its thought. That's what it wants to do. People get tricked into avoiding responsibility for this thought, and it's like, you know, being responsible for the thought is not what you think. It's not making you guilty, it's making it so that you can be free. So once this defense is seen, the ego defense, there's another ego defense, a defense of pseudo-retardation, then it can be relinquished. It can't be relinquished, though, until it's seen. Yay. All right. Paragraph three, sentence three of chapter three. You'll I start over. You may well be using this defense as you read this course. What what defense are we talking about again? Pseudo-retardation syndrome. Yep, that's what I'm saying. See that? He's bringing this teaching now directly to you. See, yeah, you're right. That's the one. This isn't an accusation. He's not accusing you of anything, he's inviting you to recognize into yourself that this pseudo-retardation is not rare. It's common, it is a common ego strategy. It's subtle, it's very familiar, and it's often not noticed that this is what's going on. Okay, you may be using it's he says, you may well be using this defense. He's saying you may be minimizing your own capacity, you may be claiming confusion where clarity is available. I've seen that a bunch, right? I mean, for me, in my mind, I'm not one to claim confusion. I don't claim it. There's confusion. Don't have anything to do with me. See, it's like you get into I'm confused, then it starts a whole thing. Oh shit, there's confusion. Well, that'll pass. It only arises to pass away again. It doesn't mean anything, right? There's there's confusion, clarity's coming. You can say that. Clarity's behind it. Uh, what else? You may be shrinking from responsibility for your thought. That's the thing. You may be using I don't understand as a shield. This posture of incapacity is just used to avoid change. I want to keep on seeking illusions, is what you might as well be saying. I want to keep on chasing illusions in this dream world so I could just make sure for sure, for sure, for sure, that I really don't want it. So the ego will say something like, This is too hard, especially looking at that fat book, The Course in Miracles. I can't understand these ideas. I haven't practiced enough, I'm not advanced enough. This is beyond me. I need more time before I can apply this. So these are all different ways the ego that can throw up defense mechanisms like Jesus' name, pretending to have less ability than you actually do. Trying to escape the implications of teaching. You're listening to an ego. You don't want to escape the implications of teaching. That's your happiness, but the ego does. And you're used to listening to the ego because the ego tells you all the fun is out in the world. All the fun is in all those things you think you want in the world. The ego is like really afraid of a course in miracles, since it's exposing your power and undoing your justifications for suffering. This is a justification for suffering. See that? This mental retardation around learning this course, justification. I guess I gotta keep on suffering because I'm not gonna I'm not getting it. If you take this in, it doesn't leave any place for you to be a victim. So while reading and practicing a course in miracles, you may you be using pseudo-retard retardation to slow down your learning. If there's any perception of difficulty for learning a course in miracles, that's an illusion. Making the material seem abstract or not reachable, that's an illusion. The ego wants to protect this interpretation of helplessness. That book can't help you. You'll never learn that.

SPEAKER_02: 1:17:55

No one around me seems too, you know, it seems too much for any of them. Like, why am I doing that much?

SPEAKER_00: 1:18:04

Well, I'm around you.

unknown: 1:18:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 1:18:06

She's saying it seems like no one around her gets it. Well, look at you peopled everyone in your world, right? And and here's what we're talking about too. You know, through this, Jesus is definitely implying these lifetimes, they're not the the the means to an end, an ego end. These are a means to an end on a much larger arc, right? So if you're perceiving, you're perceiving that no one else is getting it around you, you're new to the material yourself and you've peopled your whole world, right? And now, look, I'm like a few miles away from you. So look at that. All right. So you might go, why? Here's a good question, too, because the whole thing is made up of questions, right? So the so the question, why does it seem like I get it, but all these other people don't get it? You could actually change that question in your mind and go, why does it seem like everyone I meet is so enlightened? Like, because the question your aunt's asking is what sets everything in motion, right? So so just that question arising is making it so that you keep seeing that, right? And see how that even seems to be a question when I'm right here. I'm like two miles away from you. I fucking get it, right? So we can be getting it together. Okay, you see what I'm saying there? So because you trained all the people in the world, you train them, and then you're retraining them every time you ask the question like that. Why am I getting it? And all these other people are getting it. It it you're basically asking for that to be reproduced. So you can really just change the question right in your hand, right in your mind. Here's manifestation 101, you guys. Change this the question. What's the question again? Why are all these enlightened people around me all the time? See? Why am I so beautiful? Why am I having such a great time? You know, because it is all like, what question are you asking? Yeah. Right. Because there's no real answer.

unknown: 1:20:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:20:20

Right? It's always a question. Yeah. I I love that one. I forgot what movie it's on. Right. There's really, yeah, when you look at it, yeah. Yeah. It's like you just need a better question.

SPEAKER_04: 1:20:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:20:40

Forgot what movie it was, but the teacher said, remember, there are no stupid questions. There's only stupid people who ask questions. Craggs me up. Yeah, basically the ego is just asking all these questions why things are the way you don't want them to be. See that? So change the question. That's what I noticed, man. I could be playing out patterns with people, and they're so freaking advanced, they're just like, whoo, thanks for playing out that pattern with me. That was awesome, you know. Uh it's amazing. It's awesome. So misunderstanding is something that's actively chosen always. So when you misunderstand anything in a course in miracles, just recognizing, oh, I chose to have that misunderstanding. I chose to see it through a lens of separation. And if anything doesn't feel completely peaceful and at ease and easeful for you in a course in miracles, you didn't get the meaning. That wasn't the meaning. Okay. So it's asking you as a learner to consider am I pretending not to understand? Am I using confusion as a delay tactic? Am I hiding from the simplicity of what's being taught here? This is like really simple things, really. Am I avoiding a shift in my perception? Is that what I'm doing? Notice. By exposing this possibility to you, Jesus is helping you dissolve this ego defense. That's the reason for it. It's not to look at it and say, Am I guilty of doing that or anything? It's to see itself, because seeing itself itself begins the undoing. It's not the same anymore. You're not going to be able to just do it and hide it from yourself once you're once you see it. It can't, it's just not functioning unconsciously anymore. Right. The deeper invitation with this sentence is that you're far more capable than you think. You already understand more than you even admit to yourself. The deeper implication is you're not weak, you're not slow, you're not confused. You're afraid of the implications of your clarity. You know why you're afraid of that? Because everything gets blown up. Everything gets blown up. I know as I was learning a course in miracles, I was going through uh living with a family who all projected, reflected back to me that I was going insane. Right? I mean, and we even had employees. My husband and the and the employees would talk about how stupid I am while I'm not in a room. Right? And it's like I'm noticing I'm going through a spiritual transformation at the time. I'm going, okay, well, I see that, and I'm just gonna stay. I stayed out in my garden. I had a really nice garden at that time. I'd stay out there for like six, eight hours a day. I'm just gonna stay in the garden and work on my uh spirituality out there and not be concerned about whatever they're doing in there saying about me or uh kind of gossip and rumors, something's wrong with me. I'm letting uh everything be as it is. Something's wrong with me. Yeah. Um, you know, the implications are you're not that person, you're not that uh character that you made, and you're not living up to people's expectations anymore. And your relationships may temporarily look like they're a mess, too. That's what occurred for me. I mean, then you know then it went past a certain point, and the relationships started to all just come back into alignment, and that's how they are, they're always in alignment now, even when it seems like someone doesn't like me or someone doesn't want to talk to me. For me, it's in alignment because I see that as them having the exact experience that they need. And I see myself, if I'm going to project any kind of victimization on myself, then I'm giving myself that feeling right now. And that the thought doesn't mean anything. So it's like all relationships get healed. And what I notice is people, even if it seemed like they were uh pissed at me or anything, they will just flow back into peacefulness automatically because that I see them as being perfectly in their power and accepting all of their uh projections as perfect, right? It's just embracing everything, experiencing the experience. So this sentence, let's see, read it again. You may well be using this defense, uh pseudo-mental mental retardation, right? Is that what he called it? Yep, pseudo-retardation syndrome. You may be using that as you read this course. So he's giving uh he's giving you like a sense of okay, you still have your dignity as a learner. You're not limited, you're not incapable. You may just be defending it, you may just be defending against your own uh awareness by using this, and you can stop doing that now. You can just stop doing that now and eliminate that defense. So now the learning becomes simple again. Isn't that so sweet? Yeah, paragraph three, sentence four. This, okay, this. Let's see what this is. This represents a joint attack on both yourself and me. That's Jesus talking. You don't want to be attacking Jesus. Come on. Not that Jesus can be attacked by you, but this, and what's the this? Let's go back to that sentence again. That's you using this defense of pseudo-retardation syndrome as you read a course in miracles. So when you do that, it represents a joint attack on yourself and me, Jesus, okay, because it renders your mind weak and mine incompetent. And your mind's so powerful to make shit up that that just becomes reality for you. Jesus is incompetent. He can't even help you. Footnote four: pretending to not understand the course makes your mind appear too weak to grasp it and makes Jesus' mind appear too incompetent to make himself understood. Jesus, why are you talking that way? I can't even understand it. That's the ego talking. You can understand this, it's actually really simple. So he's naming now a consequence of pseudo-retardation while you're studying a Course in Miracles. When you pretend not to understand, that is not a neutral act. He's just inspiring awareness of this. Notice when you pretend not to understand, that's not neutral. It's an attack, it's not in form that it's an attack, but it's in the meaning. Joint attack, he says, okay? A joint attack. Yourself, it's attacking two targets. Yourself by claiming a weakness that you don't actually have, and Jesus by implying that he is not communicating clearly. How often does that happen? Come on, Jesus, say it clearly.

SPEAKER_02: 1:29:14

Yeah, and that's I mean, pretty much anyone I've talked to that was like raised religious, a raised Christian, and now they're, you know, uh spiritual and not doing you know the Bible stuff anymore or whatever. They're just like, they're like, yeah, you know, I tried, I tried listening and nothing happened. Nothing happened, yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I microspect. I hear people complaining about that a lot. Like, like, I did, I put the effort in to religion, and it did nothing for me.

SPEAKER_00: 1:29:48

And it did nothing for me, yeah. Yeah, so that's awesome. It's like this is this is for those who want it. This is just for those who want it. If you want this, then you can hear this. Don't attack yourself with thoughts like this. Then you're you're gonna be on, don't diminish your own mind, do not diminish your mind. It's all powerful. Okay, it's it's like uh you you can use it to undermine Jesus as a teacher. Look at that. Reinforce a lie in both minds. Reinforce the lie that you're you're uh incapable of getting this, and reinforce the lie at the same time Jesus is incapable of teaching it. Pretending not to understand makes your mind look weak to you, but it's not really. Your mind's all powerful again. This is the ego strategy when you pick up a course in miracles. If you seem unable to learn, then Jesus must be failing to teach it properly. The course must be too advanced, or it's uh it's opaque. Let's say it's uh what is that? It's too symbolic, too advanced. It doesn't, you can't do anything with it. This is what keeps you safe, quote unquote, safe from having to accept what a course in miracles is saying. You can you can get it, any one of normal cognitive abilities. It's easy. And not only is it attacking you and Jesus, it's preserving separation between you and Jesus. Jesus isn't even separate from you. You could say Jesus is a field of consciousness that's in your own mind. Of course, it can teach you. It's in your own mind, it teaches you when you're when you're willing to learn it. The whole book, A Course in Miracles, coming out of your mind. It teaches you once you're willing to learn it. When you stop attacking yourself, when you stop affirming this confusion, when you stop claiming incapacity, believing you're too weak or haven't practiced enough to grasp what's true. Reinforcing this idea that your mind is limited does not help you. Pretending Jesus can't reach you does not help you. Suggesting that his teaching, this is his teaching in A Course in Miracles, suggesting that it's unclear does not help you. If you say it's unclear, it's unclear. That's how that works. Okay, if you say that, if what you say is for you, if you say it's unclear and you can't get it, that's it. You want to cast Jesus as ineffective or inadequate as a teacher, that's what becomes your reality, but you don't really want that. Don't undermine Jesus' role as communicator of truth. That's what his role is in your mind. He's yours, he's not offended. Yeah, he is not, he's not offended by this, by you thinking that he can't teach you. He's just revealing the ego's hidden intention so you can see around it. Right? No problem. Just look at it so you don't have to be victim to it. When you seem to not understand, you're delaying healing, you're avoiding responsibility for your thought, and you're preserving the illusion of separation. So you can maintain the belief that you're small and keep on going through lifetimes trying to look for something that'll satisfy you, which is not gonna do. So this sentence is calling attention to how deeply the ego fears your actual capacity. Look, this represents, okay, this uh mental retardation syndrome applied to a course in miracles, represents a joint attack on both yourself and me because it renders your mind weak and mine incompetent. By claiming I don't get it, the ego gets two things at once. It makes you seem powerless and Jesus seem ineffective. That's why he's calling it a joint attack, a lie that injures both truths, the truth of who you are and the truth of who Jesus is at once. Your strength and Jesus' clarity, right? You have you have uh all the mental strength you need to do this, and Jesus has all the mental clarity to guide you. You can make it seem like that's not so and believe it to be the truth. Your mind isn't weak. Jesus' communication is totally competent. The only barrier that you're up against is the ego's decision to misunderstand the material. As soon as this is recognized, this defense collapses. You don't use it anymore. Isn't that great? Don't you love that? You just don't use it anymore. I'm not gonna use that confusion one. And if confusion arises, confusion is here and it's passing. That's all. I'm not, I don't become confused. How am I gonna become confused because of that? Right. The relationship between your mind and his Jesus, the relationship, which is oneness, it's in oneness, it's in perfect unity, it's restored in your mind with clarity and respect. And then understanding just is natural for you again. Don't buy into that. I don't care if you've been doing it your whole life. Right now, you can decide and put that away. No more of that. No more of that. Uh what do you call it? Pseudo-retardation syndrome applied to a course in miracles. So, sentence five. Remember, this puts you in a truly fearful position. Again, what is this? Back to the previous sentence. It says this again, this, this, this pseudo-retardation syndrome applied to a course in miracles. That's what this is. Remember, this puts you in a truly fearful position. So now he's talking about the effect of using this defense of pseudo-retardation against yourself and him. The consequence is not that it's making you guilty of anything, it's that it puts you in a truly fearful position. When you attack your mind and Jesus', you're destabilizing your sense of safety. That's the truly fearful position. Okay, you put yourself in a state of perceived vulnerability. You've undermined your confidence in your own ability to learn. You've also undermined your trust in Jesus as a teacher. Of course, this is fearful. You create a world within yourself where nothing can be relied upon. It's fearful. How unnecessary. Fear comes up whenever you deny your own strength. You can be sure of that. If there's fear, you've denied your own strength. Pretending confusion, the ego accomplishes these fearful outcomes. You seem incapable, number one. Of course, that's gonna feel like anxiety. Jesus seems incapable, incapable, number two. Of course, that's gonna breed distrust. That's what people are going through. They seem incapable, so they feel anxiety. Jesus or whoever, spirit, whatever you want to call it, seems incapable. And then that makes distrust. And the learning relationship seems like it's broken. So it makes people feel lonely and isolated. This is doesn't need to be to stop pretending. This is all effects of pretending confusion. That's all it is. Fear comes from believing in something fearful, like you can't understand this course, like Jesus can't teach the course, like your clarity is somehow beyond your reach. So these beliefs, believing like this, like you can't learn it, makes you feel alone and unsupportive and unsupported and fragile and unsafe in your mind. So here he's highlighting the emotional cost of using this defense. The defense of pseudo retardation syndrome. Remember, this puts you in a truly fearful position. You're falsely lowering your mind's capacity. You're also falsely lowering. Your sense of stability. Truly fearful, you know, he's not saying terrified, but fundamentally, fundamentally insecure. You're losing the ground beneath your learning because you're believing in the thought that says you can't learn. You're depriving yourself of true comfort that comes from trusting the guidance being given. You can have that now. The ego would claim that this defense is harmless. I just don't understand. Jesus is saying it generates fear because it severs the connection between teacher and learner. That's what this relationship is about. While we're perceiving illusion, it's it's a teacher and learner relationship. We want to keep that connection. That's our happiness. That's our happiness through uh an illusory world. Traveling through, journeying through, you could say, an illusory world. So this sentence is like a loving warning, I feel. Don't do this to yourself. Fucking don't do it. You can if you want, but don't do it. You know, he said earlier, I always go back to this too in uh paragraph two. We're in a celestial speed up. That's kind of like why I'm even being caused to talk to you like this. I, you know, like from my uh point of view, uh human, you say human point of view, I don't give a fuck. I know I don't need to tell you guys this stuff. I just notice I'm being orchestrated in this way. And that's because it's a celestial speed up right now, and we're being asked to be released of more fear than we normally would under normal circumstances. So that's why there's all this, all kinds of different things available to you. Whatever you're you're resonating with, that's gonna help you see more clearly how to be released from fear as quickly as possible. And this is one of them. This is one of the ways. See that you may see this playing in yourself just subtly. Great. Subtle is enough. Once you're aware of it, you're not doing it anymore. Oh, wait, there's that voice that says I'm not capable again. Oh, wait, there's that voice that's saying Jesus isn't being clear enough. Jesus, why don't you just come over here and tell me in plain fucking language what you fucking mean? That's what this is. Yeah, it is. It's really clear. It's hard to deny. Some of it, some of it, you know, for me at an earlier time was uh gosh, it was some kind of an irritation. It was some kind of an irritation, especially the sickness stuff and the food stuff. I'm like, no way, I don't cause my own sickness. That comes on me. I'm victimized by that. I couldn't, I'd like put the book away for a little while, but then I came back to it.

SPEAKER_02: 1:43:14

That one where it's like, if a brother's acting insanely, do what he says to do or something, he's just like right, right.

SPEAKER_00: 1:43:26

Yeah, he's saying, do whatever he's asking you to do, as long as it's not you know, and that's really just demonstrating that nothing that you seem to do here is really important in and of itself. It's all demonstrating something. So if you're feeling like a brother is asking you to do something, you're like, right, like I would do that for you. That's how you know, yeah, you want to lean into doing that. You don't really make a choice on it, but just leaning into, oh yeah, I see. You know, Jesus is saying that's the kind of thing you should actually do when it seems like the nerve of them asking me to do that, right? When your reaction is like that, when the no is just not like is is just not neutral.

SPEAKER_02: 1:44:10

See, I should look at that exact point. I don't even know if it's exactly stained that way, but I think it's pretty damn close.

SPEAKER_00: 1:44:19

Yeah, I think so too. I'm I'm familiar with it. All right, let's do another sentence. Yay, it's 444 on Christmas Eve, apparently. Woohoo! Okay, paragraph three, sentence six. If you cannot understand either your own mind or mine, you do not know what is really willed. If you cannot understand either your own mind or mine, you do not know what is really willed. So he's explaining here the deeper consequence of pretending not to understand. Lack of in lack, lack of understanding isn't an intellectual issue. That's what the ego wants you to believe. It's actually obscuring will. Will means the shared will of God and the will of his son. So he's saying you do not know what is really willed. If you cannot understand either your own mind or mine, you do not know what is really willed. You lose sight of what you truly desire. You become confused about even your motivation in the world. You see, some people there's like really scared of all the movements they're making. Can't be natural. You misinterpret your feelings and your impulses, right? And the feelings, uh, look at I was going over this one in an article that I just wrote. I think I published it last night. No, the night before, and I was going over this how feelings, uh sense of contraction, it triggers danger. But it's like if you stop and notice it, most of the time a lion is not chasing you. You're not in any danger, right? But it's it, it's a signal that makes it seem like there's danger. That's a misinterpretation. So, this is how you can distinguish the ego's wishes from your true willingness, is looking at the contraction and recognizing, okay, this doesn't mean what I think it means. It only means that there's something to be seen here. It's a it's a point for me to pause and receive guidance. So he's saying, you if you cannot understand your own mind, he's saying if if you cannot understand either your own mind or mine, you do not know what is really willed. So, not understanding your own mind, meaning you know, you don't know what your desires really are. You become confused about what's motivating you. Okay, and and you can't distinguish ego wishes from true willingness. When you this is all stemming from pseudo-retardation syndrome, remember. So this is all stemming from pretending like you don't understand, but it'll be so real to you, it'll be like you can't even distinguish the ego's wishes from what's really willed. If you convince yourself you can't understand Jesus' mind, which is that's a he said it's a dual attack. So if you can't get it, Jesus can't teach it, you can't understand, you can't understand either mind. So you lose touch with guidance. That's why it's so lonely. You mishear, you distort instruction from Jesus because you said that you can't get it. And so that's true for you. You become mistrustful and doubtful about the guidance that you're getting.

SPEAKER_02: 1:48:19

One confusion of wills is if I'm following the ego's advice as to what my will is, the ego would say my will is to hold on to as much time as possible. Like, oh, time is so fleeting, I have to do everything to like stop aging and like fear of death. All I have is just time, and it's so precious. Bruce says the Holy Spirit's will for me is to actually compress time, like actually undo time.

SPEAKER_00: 1:48:55

Right, that's what's bringing collapse time, yes. Yes, yeah, extend right, not extend time, right?

SPEAKER_01: 1:49:03

Correct statement. My true will is actually collapse time, not extend.

SPEAKER_00: 1:49:07

That's right, yes, you want to collapse time because the more you collapse time, the sooner it is before you're recognizing yourself and everyone else in our perfect union. Okay, so yes, you want to collapse time, you want to stop the projecting from happening. Happy Christmas Day to you, Maria. Thank you so much for joining. I'm not sure where you are, but it's morning, Christmas morning where you are. I love it. Maybe it's Europe. Yeah. So when it seems like Jesus' mind uh can't teach you, you become doubtful. You cannot recognize the clarity being offered, and it's always perfect clarity. Understanding, let's say understanding is the bridge between minds, okay? When it's blocked, understanding is automatic. Let's look like that. The bridge between your mind and Jesus' mind, let's say. Uh, the bridge is always there. The bridge is blocked when you're pretending that you guys can't understand each other. This is your home. You know this, you know perfect love, you know perfect peace. See, there's then there's no sense of shared purpose between you and Jesus, too. That's what was going on a couple of paragraphs back. He's saying we have, or maybe it was an ACIM uh lesson. I don't know. We share the same purpose, though. Us and Jesus. And you know, awareness of that disappears when you accept that, you can't get this. He also says, you do not know what is really willed. That means you lose connection to the will that you share with God. You start believing in the ego's will when you take on and identify with this uh retardation syndrome. You mistake ego desire for divine intention. Ego desire is not divine intention, ego desire is always to hurt you. It's not if it's not for your release now, not needing anything, just to be released now, it's ego desire. You have no desires for anything in the world, you only have a desire for the peace of God. Let the world unfold however it does. When you don't know what's really willed, you can't tell what's helpful and what's harmful.

SPEAKER_02: 1:52:03

And look what's an impossible situation, right?

SPEAKER_00: 1:52:06

It's an impossible situation, and you know, it's like it's uh it's as if the peeps, the peace of God might come from these different avenues when it's just the peace of God that you want right now, and that's available right now. There's no way you can know how to choose correctly while you're under the influence of a belief that you can't understand the course. You're not going to be able to access that peace that comes from aligning your will with God's will. So Jesus is showing that this pseudo-confusion leads to leads to an even deeper amnesia in this sentence. Forgetting your own will. Right? And forgetting Jesus's will, forgetting that they're the same will. And nothing can block you from having that connection that's available to you now, except for your own all-powerful mind. And the ego depends on this confusion. Because if you know what's truly willed, the ego disappears. It disappears. There's no place for it. I don't need you to tell me how to manipulate, for instance. I don't need you to tell me how to uh get that thing uh that I think I want or person that I think I want. That doesn't make any sense to me. I like just resting in the peace of God. Thank you. To not understand the mind of Jesus and the mind of yours, which are really one, is to be directionless, to feel unsure, divided. You know, you don't have your certainty. Your certainty is not intact. True understanding is not intellectual understanding. It doesn't mean you need to learn everything that a Course in Miracles is saying. It's just recognition that you share this purpose and this will with Jesus and with all and with God. It doesn't have to use the name Jesus if you have uh some kind of aversion to it. That is not necessary. Uh it's it's only necessary if that means something to you. You can say spirit or whatever you want. When you pretend that you don't get it, though, you block. You block your own access to clarity, to Jesus' communication, or you could say spirit's communication. You block your memory of what God's will is for you because God's will is per perfect peace, and you're avoiding choosing that. You're trying to choose something else instead. So this sentence is revealing the emotional and spiritual cost of using this defense, this confusion. It's not acting out of innocence, it's acting out of craftiness to avoid you learning it. It's a sense the ego loves you having a sense of being uh uh of being uh uh unmoored, just like you're just like floating around, no direction. That hides your certainty and and it prevents you from knowing what's truly willed. So Jesus is saying you can understand your own mind, and you can understand his mind, and when you allow that, the will that you share with Jesus becomes totally obvious to you, of course. Oh, this is my this is my truth, hmm. Thank you, everyone. Okay, so we have gone up to sentence six of paragraph three, and we'll start with sentence seven of paragraph three, and that's in seven days. Are we gonna do this on Christmas or New Year's Eve too? Want to? Yes, yes, we are doing it. We're also going dancing at wild buffalo, apparently. That's later. Yeah, we're doing this from three to five. All right, thank you so much. I love you guys. Thanks for joining. I hope you had a wonderful deep dive with me. I know I enjoyed it very much. I always loved doing these. Maria, thank you. Oh, you're in the Philippines. Okay, so it's Christmas morning in the Philippines. It's coming up on 9 a.m. there, and this lesson was perfect for me. Wonderful. I'm so happy to hear that. Uh thank you to everyone who's joined today. I appreciate you. And if you're celebrating Christmas, Merry Christmas, uh, Kwanzaa, whatever you guys are doing. I don't know. There's all kinds of different things. I'll be chilling out by myself, I think. It looks like that. I really like that too. I'll be chilling out uh Chris all Christmas and just uh being in communication with Jesus. And oh, that's this is just so exciting. It's my first time just chilling out by myself at Christmas. Not really by myself. I'm never by myself, and I'm always by myself too at the same time, isn't it so sweet? I love it. Yay! Yes, being certain the truth is true. Thank you, Glenn. All right, everyone. I'll be back on Sunday for uh wisdom dialogues, and then next Wednesday, even though it's New Year's Eve, apparently, I don't mind. Thank you, Zoom user, whoever you may be. I love you. Oh, all right, until next time, mahalo, aloha, and a hooey ho.

SPEAKER_03: 1:57:52

Yeah,