A Course in Miracles talk number 23,
Healing Others.
The text states,
I am here only to be truly helpful.
I am here to represent Him who sent me.
I do not have to worry about what to say or do,
Because He who sent me will direct me.
I am content to be wherever He wishes,
Knowing He goes there with me.
I will be healed as I let Him teach me to heal.
This could be called the Prayer of the Healer.
Introduction What is it that needs healing,
And how is it achieved?
Is it the techniques of healers which heal,
Or are they only the forms through which healing can come?
What is it that heals,
And is it only a certain gifted or chosen few who possess these abilities?
This talk will consider these questions and explore them in the light of what the Course has to say about them.
The aim of healing All our physical and psychological problems originate from only one problem,
Belief that we are separate from each other and from God.
Through the power of denial and the veil of forgetfulness which we have created about our true home,
We are forced to seek outside our mind for healing.
The pain in our body and psyche calls for instant relief.
In this way we can get trapped into seeking help only for the symptoms of our problem and forget to look more deeply at the cause in our mind.
We seek healers to repair our damaged physical and emotional bodies,
And when this is done we become content for a while,
Until a new symptom appears.
It is not wrong to seek relief for our pain,
But symptom relief is not true healing.
If you have a severe headache,
Your attention will probably be centred on the pain,
And not on its cause.
Taking some form of medication to ease the pain will provide an opportunity to help find the unforgiveness in the mind.
We need to use these symptoms to remind us that the cause of our distress is not to be found in the world,
But in our decision to remain separate.
As all our pain comes from separation,
Healing must come from joining.
If we cannot find what it is that needs forgiveness,
We can always begin where we are,
And join with those around us.
By practising forgiveness from moment to moment,
We will undo the separation that has given rise to pain.
The true function of a healer is to remind the client,
Through the example and presence of the healer,
That he is still as God created her.
This is the way that Jesus performs his miracles.
Like everyone in the world,
Jesus first looked within before looking without.
As he looked within,
He saw only the Son of God,
The Christ in his own mind.
When he looked without and saw a sick person asking for healing,
He could only see another Son of God,
Albeit a sleeping one.
As the sick person came into the presence of Jesus,
He saw someone who accepted him as an equal,
Reminding him that he could make another choice.
Until this moment,
The sick person was probably surrounded by people who only focused on his bodily symptoms,
And thus reinforced the concept of him as an ego living in a body.
The presence of Jesus reminded him that he was not an ego,
But still as God created him.
The very power of Jesus' light was all that was needed to shine away the sick person's darkness,
Once he had made the decision to be whole.
In that short moment,
The sick person realised his true nature as the Christ,
And therefore had no need to defend himself with sickness.
Although the person's ego had been temporarily vanquished,
Jesus knew it would counter-attack at the first possible opportunity,
And thus he would often counsel people to go and sin no more.
To receive a miraculous cure does not guarantee it will last.
It has often been observed by researchers that miracle cures are rarely permanent,
And the healed person often succumbs to the same or related illness after a period of months or years.
The removal of the symptoms of the sickness was not the healing,
But only a by-product of the peace which has now entered the person's mind.
Jesus' presence was a reminder of another way of being,
A call to come home to the Father's love.
We need to make the answering of this call the purpose of our life here.
To be fully healed is to awaken from the dream of separation in which we are lost.
As we begin to awaken and allow the presence of the Holy Spirit into our mind,
We can act as a channel for his healing.
The workbook states,
For this alone I need,
That you will hear the words I speak and give them to the world.
You are my voice,
My eyes,
My feet,
My hands,
Through which I save the world.
The above quotation makes it clear that it will not be we who heal,
But the love and life of Jesus or the Holy Spirit,
Which will extend through us and into the world.
Jesus has become the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in our world,
And he is now entirely without ego.
Sickness or healing is our choice.
As sickness is our choice,
So is healing.
No one can make us sick and no one can heal us unless it is our decision.
As the Course states in the text,
Healing does not come from anyone else.
You must accept guidance from within.
Even in the presence of someone like Jesus,
A sick person must still choose to see themselves as Jesus sees them.
It is evident from the Bible that many people still prefer to listen to their own ego than to his voice of love and acceptance.
Healing was seen as a threat to their ego's existence,
And so they sought refuge in fear and sickness.
The illusory realm of form was preferred to the formless realm of spirit,
Which Jesus offered.
His thought system was so alien to the ego that most people were threatened and not healed by his presence.
To defend itself,
The ego attacked what would destroy it.
In my own experience of working with clients,
I have often noticed their ambivalence towards healing.
One part of them wants to be healed,
Whilst another part is resisting the process,
As if they are saying,
Please heal me,
But don't change the way I think about myself or the world.
Please remove my symptoms,
But leave my ego intact.
The supplement,
The psychotherapy pamphlet,
States,
A madman will defend his own illusions,
Because in them he sees his own salvation.
Thus he will attack the one who tries to save him from them,
Believing that he is attacking him.
This curious circle of attack-defence is one of the most difficult problems with which the psychotherapist must deal.
In fact,
This is his central task,
The core of psychotherapy.
The therapist is seen as one who is attacking the patient's most cherished possession,
His picture of himself.
And since this picture has become the patient's security as he perceives it,
The therapist cannot be but seen as a real source of danger,
To be attacked and even killed.
Progress is achieved in healing,
When the client begins to realise that he is not the victim of the world,
But only of his own thoughts.
As she begins to understand this,
Her ego counsel her to attack the healer,
For the ego's very existence is now being threatened.
To help a client return to the cause of his problem in the mind is also to bring him closer to the Holy Spirit who resides there.
The ego is well aware that the sleeping son of God,
The decision-maker,
On finding the presence of the Holy Spirit,
May well decide to choose his guidance against the ego.
If the healer can meet the attack of the client without defence or counter-attack,
She will demonstrate that defences are not necessary,
And in that moment,
The healer does not believe in the reality of the ego.
This example will give an opportunity to the client to change her mind,
To choose forgiveness instead of attack.
The manual states,
A sick person perceives himself as separate from God.
Would you see him as separate from you?
It is your task to heal the sense of separation that has made him sick.
It is your function to recognise for him that what he believes about himself is not the truth.
It is your forgiveness that must show him this.
Healing is very simple.
