 Good afternoon. Good afternoon. With minds joined in that one clear intention, to cut through deception, to uncover false beliefs, we come together again. Yes. Let's begin by talking about the illusion of sickness. The illusion of sickness. Well, we can run it through our metaphysics real quick so we can get our basis for our discussion because really it all comes back to the basic metaphysics. So let's take it first from the tiny mad idea that it's possible to be separate from God and the mind, instead of remembering to laugh at such a silly idea, taking it serious and feeling horrified that has pulled off the impossible that is actually separated from God and a world being projected out to hide from God and the world as a defense, as a screen. So we already talked about yesterday how it was very important to see differences, to see a split out there on the screen as opposed to seeing the split in the mind because the seed mind is terrified of the light and it wants to run, so to speak, onto the screen and be distracted and the ego would have the mind remain distracted with the screen. And to see victims, the victimizers, good guys, bad guys, fortunate, unfortunate, to see the split on the screen is very important. And part of the split that we really didn't go into a great depth about was sickness and health, that once again we have a spectrum of what this world would call sick, certain symptoms in which the body seems to be breaking down or seems to be operating at less than what it would call the norm. And the other extreme is health, which is once again an illusion in the sense that there are certain standards and norms of the physique, of the immune system that are thought to be a part of a healthy body. And so we have a spectrum there, another split and duality of sickness and health. When in reality, if we pull it back, that in the sense the body is not sick and the body is not well, these are meanings that are read onto the screen and onto the body and the mind then determines what it thinks health is and what it thinks sickness is. So it's really just the mind's interpretation of what is seen through the body's eyes. Yes. The body's eyes are continually bringing forth witnesses. I mean they were made to call forth witnesses of separation. And basically it's the separating out in the categories, categorizing activities of the mind where the judgment takes place. Basically the body's senses just bring forth witnesses to fill in the categories and the splits and the judgments that have already been made in the mind. So in other words, deceived mind has a category of what it calls sickness and it will call forth, it will look for witnesses to that category. Oh, you're looking a little tired today, you look a little run down, you're a little bit pale, you don't look very well. Obviously things such as blood, sores, scabs, coughs, sneezes, loss of limbs, you know, injuries, so forth, so forth, those are all in the sickness category. Generally pain is, in one's experience, is categorized in the area of sickness as well, so that this includes feelings in the body as well, whereas the body may not look sick according to a certain category. If one is feeling pain, there's usually an association with illness of sickness. And once again, this is a witness, this is a decision in mind that's being projected onto the body as a witness. The mind then has a quick forgetting, it forgets that it had made the decision and it seems as if, as if all things in the world is just something in the world, germs or I burned myself on a stove, as if the stove, the hot stove and the finger touching it has been the cause of the throbbing pain in the finger, or I sprained my ankle, or you know, there's always a justification for the pain is being seen as happening with something in the world. And once again, what is, what is forgotten is that it's a decision in the mind that the mind is afraid of love, the mind is afraid of healing in that sense, because healing would, would in a sense prove to the deceived mind, the fallacy of its guilt and the fallacy of its deception. And the deceived mind is convinced that it's guilty. So in a real twisted way, it's like healing would prove God right and me wrong. And in the sense to the deceived mind or to the ego, it's like God wins then. If I'm healed, then God wins. And the mind is so convinced of its guilt, so convinced of its, that it has the serp to power of God, that it recoils from love, it recoils from light. When light gets too close, you know, it's too close of an awareness of it, then a defense such as sickness is a, is a quick way of, of providing a witness, forgetting that the mind made the witness and justifying its, its unworthiness and guilt. So is another way of talking about that, just to put it in the framework of littleness and magnitude. And the mind that believes it's separated from God then believes that it's guilty, that it's going to be punished, believes in its littleness. And the sickness that it projects is in proof that it's like saying to God, see I am little. I am weak. I am nothing. I am puny. I am helpless. I am frail. I am not the magnitude that you think I am, or that you created me to be. I've made myself something else other than that. Yes, and certainly sickness conflicts with the idea of magnitude. It's hard to, it's impossible to hold the idea in mind that I am the Holy Son of God and self, or that I am infinite, that I am spirit with the witness of pain, of deterioration, of, of sickness being identified with the body as being sick and so forth. So it, it definitely wipes out of awareness the thought of magnitude, which is precisely why it, it's used. It, it's to keep it to say. It goes in tension just to keep that magnitude out of mind. And anything that's limiting your sickness certainly does that. And also when we get back to that, to the levels, the mind and the, the world body level, once again we have level confusion in the sense that sickness as seen in the world, or health as seen in the world, we get into defining the problem based on form. And we discussed yesterday that the problem is in the mind. And, and when the problem is seen to be in the mind, when the problem is seen to be solely the belief in separation, then it's answered because the solution or the Holy Spirit is in the mind. But when the problem is not seen where it is, when the problem is defined as being in the world, then of course the, the solution is obscure because the, the problem is still not defined correctly. And so the problem is obscure. So as we see with defining sickness as being out in the world and in the body, that once again conveniently serves the ego because it, it denies or covers over the fact that the mind is sick because the focus is on, I've got a sick body, I've got the flu, I've got cancer, sore throat or so forth. And this, this is my problem. This is the way the problem has been defined. And the flip side of course is, you know, I'm in great shape. I'm, I can bench press 400 pounds and I can jog, you know, 20, 20 miles with hardly breaking a sweat. I've got great stamina, cholesterol counts way down, you know, trim, lean, mean, fight machine, you know, the whole deal. This is the mind's definition of health. And there's a great obsession to pursue that as well. You're saying either one, both are equally illusory? Yes, because there is no health in the world per se because health is a state of mind is, is peace of mind. It's not a state of body. Yes. Of course we associate health and, and sickness with a state of body. Yes. And it's really a state of mind. Yes. But it's because of that association with the body that it is an effective decoy or delay maneuver by the ego to keep the mind from looking at the mind. Yes. Health is associated with nutrition as well. I mean, eating the right foods. The laws of nutrition as we learn in lesson 76 of Course in Miracles. Of course in Miracles tells us that that's a made up law. Obviously it has to do with the body. And that's just another one of the, you know, economics and so on and so forth that, that are made up laws that have nothing to do with, with peace of mind, that have nothing to do with, with the eternal laws. It seems to have something to do with what's defined by ego fictionary as health of the body because of the mind's investment. Yes. So you, you can believe that, you know, an exercise program and a very conscientious nutrition program can, can result in a healthy body. And it may result in a healthy body by that definition of healthy body. But even that is not only a result of the exercise program and the nutrition program because of the mind's belief in investment. Is that right? There can be an apparent change, but the mind is judging health according to the, to its standards. So it's still an interpretation. It's still an interpretation. The mind, the deceived mind has a big investment in the body of course because it, it has within the dream world, it has turned its, its back on the light. It is foregone and dissociated the spirit that it truly is. And it believes it is a body or at least in a body and therefore health is important. I mean it, it now has chosen the body to focus on as its home and it focuses on it as if it's born in a body and if it lives a certain while and if it will die. But it wants to make the body the best home that it can make for it in a sense. Despite the fact that the body will break down and degenerate and will never be immortal and, and is very temporal and transitory. It's like everything else in the projected cosmos. The mind is a big investment in trying to make it a good home. Therefore, if it's seen as I can make it live longer by, by exercising and eating the right things, if I can, can make it more comfortable by doing these things then, then I'll do it. But it's, the still the flip side is, is that there's a strong identification and belief in the body. The body in this perspective is not seen as nothing. It is seen as something. And that's why there, the obsession for, or the great search for, for health in the wrong place. Once again, health can accurately be described as, as inner peace, as a mind that is let go of judgment, that is let go of, of ordering thoughts that we talked about. A mind that, that reaches a true perception or a more stabilized perception is, is a, a minded peace and a mind that truly is healed and truly in that sense of the word is healthy. So even to consider the body as an instrument that the Holy Spirit uses.