Manuscript 17 Het Corrigeren Van Angst - a podcast by Een Cursus in Wonderen

IX. The Correction of Fear

You believe that being afraid is involuntary. 2But I have told you many times that only constructive acts should be involuntary.105 3I said that Christ-control can take over everything that doesn’t matter, and Christ-guidance can direct everything that does, if you so will.106

2 Fear cannot be Christ-controlled, but it can be self-controlled. 2Fear is always associated with what does not matter, and prevents me from controlling it. 3The correction is therefore a matter of your will, because its presence shows that you have raised the unimportant to a higher level than it warrants. 4You have thus brought it under your will, where it does not belong. 5This means you feel responsible for it. 6The level confusion here is perfectly obvious. 7The reason that I cannot control fear for you is that you are attempting to raise to the mind level the proper content of lower-order “reality.”107 8I do not foster level confusion, but you can will to correct it.

3 You would not tolerate insane behavior on your part, and would hardly advance the excuse that you could not help it. 2Why should you tolerate insane thinking? 3There is a fallacy here you would do well to look at clearly. 4You believe that you are responsible for what you do but not for what you think. 5The truth is that you are responsible for what you think, because it is only at this level that you can exercise choice. 6What you do comes from what you think. 7You cannot separate the two by giving autonomy to your behavior. 8Behavior is controlled by me automatically as soon as you place what you think under my guidance.

4 Whenever you are afraid, it is a sure sign that you have allowed your mind to miscreate; that is, you have not allowed me to guide it. 2It is pointless to believe that controlling the outcome of misthought can result in real healing. 3When you are fearful, you have willed wrongly. 4This is why you feel you are responsible for it. 5You must change your mind, not your behavior, and this is a matter of will. 6You do not need guidance except at the mind level. 7Correction belongs only at the level where causation is possible. 8The term does not really mean anything at the symptom level, where it cannot work.

5 The correction of fear is your responsibility. 2When you ask for release from fear, you are implying that it isn’t. 3You should ask, instead, for help in the conditions which have brought the fear about. 4This always entails a willingness on the part of your separated mind. 5At this level, you can help it. 6You are much too tolerant of mind wandering, thus tacitly condoning your mind’s miscreations. 7The particular result never matters, but this fundamental error does. 8The fundamental correction is always the same. 9Before you will to do anything, ask me if your will is in accord with mine. 10If you are sure that it is, there will be no fear.

6 Fear is always a sign of strain, which arises whenever the will to do conflicts with what you do. 2This situation arises in two major ways:

1. 3You can will to do conflicting things, either simultaneously or successively.108 4This 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 else is outraged.

2. 5You can behave as you think you should, without entirely willing to do so. 6This produces consistent behavior, but entails great strain within the self.
7 If you think about it, you will realize that in both cases the will and the behavior are out of accord, resulting in a situation in which you are doing what you do not will. 2This arouses a sense of coercion, which usually produces rage. 3The anger then invades the mind, and projection in the wrong sense becomes likely.109 4Depression or anxiety is virtually certain.

8 Remember that whenever there is fear, it is because you have not made up your mind. 2Your will is split, and your behavior inevitably becomes erratic. 3Correcting at the behavioral level can shift the error from the first type to the second, but will not obliterate the fear. 4It is possible to reach a state in which you bring your will under my guidance without much conscious effort, but this implies the kind of habit pattern which you have not developed dependably as yet.

9 Although people say that God will never ask you to do more than you can, they do not understand it themselves. 2God cannot ask more than you will. 3The strength to do comes from your own undivided will to do.110 4There is no strain in doing God’s will as soon as it is also your own.

10 The lesson here is quite simple, but particularly apt to be overlooked. 2I will therefore repeat it, urging you to listen. 3Only your mind can produce fear. 4It does so whenever it is conflicted in what it wills, thus producing inevitable strain because willing and doing become discordant.111 5This cannot be corrected by better doing. 6But it can be corrected by higher willing.

11 The first corrective step is knowing it is fear. 2After taking this step, you might benefit temporarily by adding another step before going on with the corrective process: Try saying to yourself that you must have willed not to love somehow or somewhere, or the fear which arises from behavior-will conflict could not have happened. 3Then follow the previous instructions.112

12 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 as the remedy. 2From this viewpoint, the steps can be reworded as follows:

1. 3Know first this is fear.

2. 4Fear arises from lack of love.

3. 5The only remedy for lack of love is perfect love.

4. 6Perfect love is the Atonement.

7The final procedural step is inherent in the last statement.113 8We have emphasized that the miracle, or the expression of Atonement, is always a sign of real respect from the worthy to the worthy.114 9This worth is reestablished by the Atonement.

13 It is obvious, then, that when you are afraid, you have placed yourself in a position where you need Atonement because you have done something loveless, having willed without love. 2This is precisely the situation for which the Atonement was offered. 3The need for the remedy inspired its establishment. 4As long as you recognize only the need for the remedy, you will remain fearful. 5However, as soon as you use the remedy, you have also abolished the fear. 6This is how true healing occurs.

14 It may help if you say this prayer to me:

2I would like to pray that my will be united with thine, recognizing that thy perfect love will suffice (or correct) for my imperfect love.

3I pray that I may accept the Atonement with conviction, recognizing its inestimable worth, and my own divine worth as part of this identification with thine.

4I pray that my fear be replaced by an active sense of thy love, and thy continual willingness to help me overcome the split or divided will which is responsible for my difficulty with this.

5I accept the divinity of the messages I have received,115 and affirm my will in both accepting and acting upon the Atonement principle.

6Here I am.

15 The major problem that you have is the continuing split will, which naturally interferes with your true identification. 2To the extent that you hold onto this split, it will take longer to get through and will markedly interfere with your own integration efforts. 3Reliance has to be placed on me, which is sufficient once you do this without distantiation or division in loyalties. 4This will be strengthened through a continual affirmation of the goal you want to achieve and an awareness of its inevitability. 5In this way, you will perceive and know your true worth, and the importance of maintaining a complete identification.

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