 The waking up process, in the ultimate sense, takes place in the mind, from looking at the false beliefs in the mind without fear, calmly looking at them and just seeing them as false. And that's those questions about, a lot of times those come in about, you know, being here and, gosh, I'm getting, I've had people come up to me in seminars together, elderly or something, and they'll say, I'm, the only thing I had had this stuff when I was young, you know, or I doubt it, doubt it, doubt it, but it's still those age time concepts that are very much tied up in the ego system. And the age of the body or the passion of the body has no effect on the mind. And it's the mind that's to be healed. And since, you know, the illusion of the body has nothing to do with that, then if the body stops breathing, it still has nothing to do with that. But if we have to work on stuff and become aware, like Carol was saying, then we have to use these experiences in order to gain awareness and we have to have another body of it, as far as if it's a continuum when we make a transition. Well, basically Jesus at one point says that only salvation can be so secure and one either wakes or sleeps. And at one point he says many upon death rise and wake at that point. You know, in that sense he's using death in a sense of the body. It could be any instance. Just one instance that takes to wake up. But really what I hear you saying is that, you know, what's the use of this world, you know? And the course is definitely saying though the world was made as a projection as a destructive device, keep your mind busy and preoccupied with things in the world with pain and pleasure and pursuits and on and on and on. Even though it was made as a destructive device, such as the mind wouldn't look at the belief, this is meant to cover over the false belief. The attention remains focused out here. That the Holy Spirit has a different purpose for the world. That even though it was made for that purpose, that was the ego's purpose. Now the Holy Spirit says here, I've got a different purpose, healing. We're going to use these bodies. We're going to use these whatever, cars, houses, trees, clothes, everything. We're going to use those in the waking up process. And that's the whole idea of training the mind to start to bring a single purpose to everything. That's probably the most difficult thing to grasp. I've had people ask as we've even taught classes for weeks and weeks and they'll say, now let me go over this again. There's a purpose that the Holy Spirit has for the world. Would you tell me what that is again? I'm glad to know that. I have seen it with more experienced students. And this is after we've been at it for weeks of going through the workbook. And the reason it seems so vague, that purpose and that so abstract everything, is that it's impossible to hold that purpose while the mind holds on to other purposes. That's the ego purposes that are given to the world. To get things for its own sake and accumulate and all those things with all. We recognize that's hard enough to just love. Maybe a little thrill about getting something or when I was a kid, going to Coney Island. That place would bring me happiness and salvation. I didn't use the word salvation, but I was awful happy from that place or particular ride or whatever. We've all had that sense that there are other goals and purposes that are in our mind and they obscure our function. They obscure that abstract purpose. That purpose is what brings a fusion that you talked about about. But as long as I'm going to hold tight to the corral, then gradually as I open the corral door, that purpose starts getting more and more clear in my awareness. It just moves through me. It just, it literally, of course, this whole place will tell you what to do and where to go and what to say. Wow. You know, it's like that gives a sense of ease and effortlessness where I won't have to be struggling with each decision that I make that there'll be this presence that'll start moving through me. So that's what the Course calls it. It's one in ten. It's called Singleness of Purpose. It's called Goal. There's a passage I think I mentioned last time. The Peace of God is my one goal, the aim of all my living here, the end I seek, my purpose and my function in my life. That's common in something. But it's like he's holding it in there. He's saying it's there. It's the Holy Spirit in your mind. He's guiding you to let go of all these other goals that lock your purpose in your mind. And releasing what's in the corral, those attachments, it's what makes room for that one encounter, that one purpose, to be really what the mind is riveted on. Because the mind will, you know, rivet on what is desired. And it's what's in the corral, it's what's desired. That's what the mind, the attention is given to. And if that's released, then the mind is freed up to rivet itself on that one purpose. So it's kind of like to get to that one purpose of letting go of those attachments in the corral. The ego would have a belief that to open up the corral is to make ourselves vulnerable. Because to the ego, that is very threatening. That always struck me too in a lot of the readings I read, you know, where they always talk about risk, honesty. And, you know, one day it's just, as I was reading the course, it's done on me, that's two words, risk, honesty. I mean, true honesty, it seems that way at the beginning because to the ego, honesty is a threat. Total consistency, total laying aside deceptions. The ego says, hey, I can't be honest, I'll be out of business. My whole existence, so to speak, the ego is based on mirrors and schemes and games. And total honesty is a consistency of thought and action and word and deeds that the ego is very afraid of. So it really does seem that way at the beginning, it seems like there's a real vulnerability and it seems like it's a risk. If you've been used to repressing, then it still feels like one. It feels like one. Right. But if it doesn't, then it's like more of an accepted growth. Was there a particular question or aspect of relationships that you wanted to address? Well, yeah, I think I'm ready for that. I'd like to address the relationship of, what do you call it, special relationship. I'd like to understand more about what those relationships are for and why they're here. I really didn't know anything about it and I'm just now reading about that in the course. And I understand you guys have done this a long time now. Well, if we just go back to the metaphysics and kind of look at why specialness was made or why special relationships were made, I think I addressed the first one, but I'll address it again, that in a sense, once the separation seemed to occur in an instant, it was answered in an instant. The answer was the Holy Spirit in our mind. So that's how quick this world lasted as one instance. But it's like the ego wants to call forth, wants to keep the mind invested in believing that the past is still here. The ego used the time as it says, skip over the present. You're guilty in the past and it's been that way for a long time. It's not going to change. It's that depressing kind of thinking where it's like it's been bad in the past and it's going to be bad in the future and you don't have any power to change it. It's kind of a victim. Whereas the Holy Spirit says, now is your point of power, so to speak. Right now you can get in touch with things, with beliefs, you can make decisions, into another way of seeing and looking right now. And the Holy Spirit uses the past to bring the mind to the Holy Incident. And the way this relates metaphysically is that we mentioned that the belief of separation occurred was answered in an instant. And the ego, so to speak, answered to the correction or to the Holy Spirit was the special relationship. Because this is a way of seeming to provide something outside, something on the screen that is so attractive that the mind won't want to go within to that light. It wants to get caught up in something there. And the dynamics beneath it is, it's like now that the mind buys this belief of separation, it actually is afraid of the light, afraid of the Holy Spirit at this point when the darkened mind is, because it believes that it actually pulled off the separation, it actually pulled off the impossible, which is separated from its creator, which is really a horrifying thought. And to believe in that is just very horrifying. That's this ontological guilt and fear that's buried really, really deep within the mind. So we'll just call this, this is the belief of separation. So now a self-concept, a world and personhood and I'm now a person in the world, all these ideas and beliefs are learned and built up on here to cover over that cornerstone. Because the ego says that if you go to that cornerstone and you lift that cornerstone, then God's going to be there. And the ego says you really did it. You separated from God and he will get you. He will come after you for what you've done. You've actually stolen from heaven or you pulled yourself away from the kingdom. And he's angry about it. So the ego keeps screeching, doesn't ever, ever, ever go near that cornerstone. We'll make a bunch of beliefs, we'll build a world that you can become involved in and that you won't ever go back to that point. And the special relationships, those are the things that are part of the dream world that are very attractive. In other words, the course talks about special hate relationships and special love relationships. And the special hate relationships are the obvious ones. It's not quite so insidious or difficult to see because it gets back to that projection that we've been talking about before. You've got this guilt, the ego says unload it, you don't like this person, get them out of your life, get as far away as you can from them. But it's okay to hate some people, the ego councils, and that's its way of dumping the guilt and getting rid of and blaming. But the special love is the flip side where I seek for a partner or persons, whether they be children or spouses or parental relationships or best friends or whatever, that will make me forget about all this unconscious stuff that I can say so distracted in form. I can say so distracted with them and I can make a bargain with them and even if I can get them to meet my needs a lot of the time, they will serve as a God substitute. But still the mind is deceiving and it believes that it's lacking. It still believes that it's been kicked out of the kingdom. So it's like, well, go for what you can, eat, drink and be married or you're going to die and get as many people and friends that can be these people. Sometimes only one or sometimes the focus of a group, it can be, special relationships can come in lots of ways or it could even be the things where I'm fed up with all kinds of people and I go near a million of women again. I've had enough of that pain. I'm just going to go find myself a good mountain and build myself a log cabin and get myself some quilts or knitting or something I like to do and heck with it. For animals, for academics, I'll become the smartest, the best botanist in the world or whatever career. It doesn't so much matter what it is but that's why it's set up that way and that's where the codependency comes in so the seed mind is looking for completion in that other person and it can't succeed the whole thing is set up from the word go it can't succeed in that sense because it can seem to succeed you have a mirage of having everything but in a way it's like the ego thing in there, it's a cruel vicious world never mind that it's just a world I just perceive exactly what I think I want to find whatever I selectively choose in the world which is the fact of it but the ego says it's a cruel vicious world out there people are out to get you the government and the IRS people that are always treating you better work or here or there and if you can find a haven if you can just find that one person just one person or a couple people that you can always talk to and it won't beat you up and it won't attack you and everything build your home, build your security on that relationship with that other person and so it's like we have our basket and our emotional eggs and we start saying this is it this is the haven that will do it and we go click, click, click we start putting our investments and everything on the life we're going to live together and how it's going to be we keep loading them in and building this up and everything and then invariably they seem to leave they seem to die they seem to get sick they seem to be going through trauma and we're so emotionally invested and co-dependent with them that we seem to go down the cesspool with them and it's because in the ultimate sense it's been set up from the beginning that they've been set up as a God substitute and there is nobody ever that will serve them as a God substitute it's set up for the basket to drop the ego is set to putting up now the Holy Spirit says okay this is where you think you are and they seem to be set up destructively but I can bring a touch of heaven to them I can bring a purpose so that you can bring up that purpose that we've been talking about to that relationship you can literally turn the relationship and and and