 in Europe, for people to attack you or your beliefs or your man's religion, your status, your beliefs. It's been a real process for me of starting to just identify from those things and beliefs that I thought I was. In other words, everyone who comes to this place has ideas, learned ideas of what it means to be a man and a woman, for example, with manhood. And a lot of the arguments, the arguments between the sexes and everything, get into, well, men are not a woman are. And what the Course is doing, we were talking about this in supper two, about judgment. The Course is saying, you don't know who your brother is. You know, you've got a lot of judgments that you're laying on based on what you believe you are. The people you go into this, you start identifying yourself more as a spiritual being. And you even get away from identifying yourself with the world, in many ways, as it goes along. Another good example is like with the Red Span stuff, that, you know, how it is when we get attached to a particular city or a particular team or a particular hero, and somebody starts seeming to bat-mouth, or whatever, you know, how the defenses start to come up. So what I've learned is, when my defenses start to come up, it's because of my mind's identity attachment to that hero. Also, so is insecurity. Yeah, it's definitely a sign of insecurity. And it's definitely not lining with the Holy Spirit of Jesus in my mind, because Jesus is teaching us that as we start to disidentify from our attachments in particular forms, that we do become more defenseless, because we start to identify with the spirit or the soul in each and every one. Insecurity really takes a question about insecurity. Now that the mind is not so sure what it is, you know, it's got these two different voices in there, this is a state of insecurity. And what happens is the mind will attempt to use all kinds of defense mechanisms to kind of get around this insecurity, or cover it over. In other words, you might have heard denial, and repression, and projection, and all these different things, that literally the mind, the ego is quite a genius in coming up with tricks that will minimize its insecurity and fear, but will not let it go, because the ego doesn't want to let it go. It knows that if you let go of all the fears and insecurities, that the ego's out of business. It doesn't have a life anymore, you know, if that happens. It's a kind of sneaky mechanism where it's like, when you use the defense mechanism, it's designed to reduce the fear, you know, but it's not designed at all to eliminate it. And also when that talks fall up, and you come above the other subject, and you're trying to reduce that person to accept that conflict going on. And it's good practice going around for me, just talking about these things, because I really, I enjoy the people question, and literally share the views and perceptions. In a sense, when we were in Florida one time, we had a gentleman who was a philosopher, who we were having dinner one time at lunch, and I grew up with him, and I looked at him, and I said, hey, Fred, why don't you come to our meeting, you know? And I heard all these groans up and down the table, like in unison. I was like, don't invite Fred. You don't want to invite Fred to your meeting, because you are really in trouble, because Fred is like a philosopher who's got a lot of questions, and wants to really get clear on all this stuff, you know, and he kind of raises all these issues, and it was like, great, that's what we wanted, and then, you know, why would we want to leave somebody out of the sunset who's ready to ask questions, you know? So, in fact, it turned out to be a tremendous four hours of really turning into these things, you know, and if somebody has a belief or opinion, and you notice a reaction or a defensiveness coming up, it has to be our own perception that's producing the uncomfortable feeling. In other words, Jesus was able to literally come and speak the word, because he had transcended the ego system, and there was nothing threatening, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, you know, the different groups that would come, and say, bless me, how dare you say, forgive people's sins, no one but the Father can do that, you know, all these different things, and Jesus, like, was able to remain at this, like above the battlefield, so to speak, because of his certainty of who he was, and that's all that the Course is doing, is it's saying, when you remove all the falsity in these false beliefs, then you'll have that certainty too, and there will be nothing in the world that can take away your peace. To me, it's a lot of comfort, in a sense, and it also helps me let go of some of my planning and trying to really fix people and change circumstances and change outcomes, and just be more accepting and trusting, you know, knowing that things are working out, and everything's working for a reason. The Bible says that too, all things work together for a reason. The Amish had a belief that if they were struck, they don't fight, they don't fight. So they'd rather have harm done to them than them to do harm. They would take it without ever coming back, and they'd have to be fast, and physical, and put it in the mission. Or, and I don't know, we'll hear a while back, where all the barns were burnt. They had a series of Amish barns that were, I think, five or six barns that were burnt down. And there was no, there's not a vindictive nature in these people. Harm was done to them. Or a car crashed into five of their Amish children, and they were all killed. And they had no remorse, I mean, they had remorse for the children, but they had no vindictive nature toward them, for the boy that killed the children. I mean, it's a marvelous belief. I don't know if it's one that I can personally live with, or work with. And I guess what I'm getting to is that we have so many different ways to get to God. Is there ever a way to get to California? We all talked about this and how to get there, but we all end up in California. Or we all end up in heaven. That's just a different direction. And then finding out that any one particular one way is the right way. And there is no particular right way. They're all the kind of right ways, aren't they? I mean, in form, what the Course is saying is that there's many forms of the universal curriculum. But in the sense in content, the whole thing, no matter what spiritual path, is like transcending the ego. So in a content, or in my sense, they're all the same. But boy, as far as tools and pathways, this is one of so many that you can take. But that brings up a good point, because basically what the Course is saying is you still have a big distortion in this form-content thing. Content is purpose. So whenever we're speaking in content, we're thinking we're speaking of purpose. What is it for? In other words, the Course doesn't so much ask the question, should I do this, or should I do this? Should I watch the TV show tonight, or should I go in and read my Course? What the Course is saying is, what's your purpose for watching the TV show? Is it going to be a distraction, something to go in and take your mind off of things and try to forget your sorrows and problems? What's your purpose for reading the Course? So a lot of times people can read the Course and just kind of move their eyes over the words and go, this doesn't work, and it leaves a book. But what the Course says is really is asking, what is your purpose? That's the crucial thing, not what form. Where so many of the spiritualities can fall into this pattern of, in a sense, getting into rituals or getting into doing things is not believing that if I do so many of particular prayer or Hail Mary or do so many of a rite or ritual or good works even, that somehow, if I do enough and accumulate them enough, the devil is kind of getting back. And the Course is saying, it's the thinking that's the problem. Your behavior is kind of automatically from your thinking. So therefore, the only place that we can really have a significant substantial change is changing the way we think. There's only two thought systems in your mind. He goes into the Holy Spirit. So basically the whole Course's path is to help discern between the two. The simplest way to identify the two is that when, we have to get into a, this sounds a little bit scientific, but it's like cause and effect. For every cause there's an effect. And what the Course is saying is there's only one cause with a capital C. That's the Creator or the Source. That's the capital C. That's the cause. And you are an effect. You were created by your Creator. You're also created in His likeness and image in the sense that you're, He's eternal, you're eternal. He's changeless, you're changeless. He's magnitude, you're magnitude. There's only one difference, seeming difference between the Father and the Son. The only difference is that the Father created the Son. And the Son did not create the Father. So this, this path does differentiate. There are some new age systems where it literally says, I am God. You know, kind of defend. Where Jesus said in the Bible, the Father and I are one. But He always talked about the Father and I. In other words, in kind of a recognition that there was, He always, whenever He would do anything, He would always point back to the Father. Don't, why do you call me good? The Father is good. You know, He always was pointing to the Father. The ego picked up on this seeming difference. The ego kind of says, why should you settle for number two? You know, why, why does this be created? Why not be the kingpin? Why not be number one all by yourself? Where you literally are, can make up a world where you're, you're the kingpin. And literally, that's what this world is. Is cause and effect are split off somehow. Like, like some could somehow be separate from the Father. And then, cause and effect are turned around and backwards. So that it seems as if the things that are happening on the screen of the world cause our emotional states. You know, even with other people, you make me angry. You know, when we little kids, we stump off and we let you make me angry. You know, or you hurt my feelings. And what the Course is saying is that's backwards. I've hurt my feelings. By my thinking. By my thinking. By my perception. If I'm identified with the ego, that's what hurts, you know. Because that's denying my crisis. If somebody seems to steal from me, or somebody seems to harm me, like you were saying, it seems as if someone's harming me or whatever. The world would say, well, you know, you're just an innocent victim. You had nothing at all to do with that. You happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And this terrible thing happened to you. But the Course is saying is that I am responsible for what I see. I'm responsible for how I feel. And I choose the goal that I choose to look upon. In other words, I can choose to see peace and healing in every situation. Or I can choose to see, you know, separation and defenses and this and that. Now, a lot of the new age systems and a lot of metaphysical systems will do that very thing. They'll say, you're responsible. But we were talking about dinner tonight. What happens when you take a thought or a mind level principle, I am responsible for my state of mind. And you take a worldly perception down here in the level of form. We'll say cancer. And you put these two together. I am responsible for my cancer. You see where the guilt comes in from taking something from a level of form and taking a metaphysical principle of mind. I am responsible for my state of mind. And you kind of cross those cross-colonies where you bring those two together, there's a lot of guilt. That's the level confusion. This is the level confusion that Barbara was talking about. Now, the question comes up, you know, right away, is if I am responsible, why am I right? Nobody in their right mind would choose sickness. And I always got to say, yes, nobody in their right mind would choose sickness. You'd have to be operating in the ego or in the wrong mind to even bring upon a witness from the world of sickness. The sickness is a very strong witness. So in other words, the mind has to be in the wrong mind and has to believe that it's guilty to call forth a witness from the world such as sickness. And the good news is that once we literally learn to choose and be in our right mind consistently, then we're free of the guilt. And therefore, you don't call forth a witness from the world to reinforce that guilt. So that's really the only escape from all pain and misery and suffering. It's like you said, join with Jesus. You know, if you're with Jesus and the Holy Spirit, if you can discern, discern between the ego and the Holy Spirit and you understand that this is the fear-based thought system, this is the thought system of love, the ego is backwards, you know. It's always telling me that there's things out there in the world that are taking away my peace of mind. And also the ego tells us that there's things in the world that give us peace of mind. That's the flip side, you know. I know a particular island where whenever I give, you know, that's kind of thinking I can go to a particular spot on this particular island. I'm always peaceful. It's when I come back to my job that I lose it. To notice that that's the fact we're thinking too, because as long as we think that there's things in the world that can give us peace or take away our peace, then we're literally independent. To me, this is what the Course is saying, is like if you don't want to listen to that ego, because the ego is telling you that there's things that you can get in this world that are going to bring you happiness because it's a big scam. It's a big scam. And so the Course basically is saying, you know