Projection is a very im****tant topic
in the Course. The first time it is treated
extensively, both in the negative and
positive sense, is in chapter 6:
"1149. Exclusion and separation are synonymous. So are
separation and dissociation. We have said before that
the separation was and IS dissociation, and also that
once it had occurred, projection became its main defence,
or the device which KEEPS IT GOING. The reason,
however, may not be as clear to you as you think. What
you project you disown, and therefore do not believe is
yours. You are therefore EXCLUDING yourself from it,
by the very statement you are making that you are
DIFFERENT from someone else. Since you have also
judged AGAINST what you project, you attack it because
you have already attacked it BY rejecting it. By doing this
UNCONSCIOUSLY, you try to keep the fact that you
must have attacked yourself FIRST out of awareness, and
thus imagine that you have made yourself safe.
1150. Projection will ALWAYS hurt you. It reinforces your
belief in your own split mind, and its ONLY purpose is to
KEEP THE SEPARATION GOING. It is solely a device
of the ego to make you feel DIFFERENT from your brothers
and separated FROM them. The ego justifies this on the
wholly spurious grounds that it makes you seem better than
they are, thus obscuring equality with them still further.
1151. Projection and attack are inevitably related, because
projection is ALWAYS a means of JUSTIFYING attack.
Anger without projection is impossible. The ego uses
projection ONLY to distort your perception of both yourself
AND your brothers. It begins by excluding something you
think exists in you which you do not want, and leads directly
to your excluding yourself from your brothers.
1152. But we know that there is another use of projection.
Every ability of the ego has a better counterpart, because its
abilities are directed by the mind, which has a better voice.
The Holy Spirit, as well as the ego, utilizes projection but
since their goals are opposed, so is the result. The Holy
Spirit begins by perceiving YOU as perfect. KNOWING
this perfection is shared, it RECOGNIZES it in others, thus
strengthening it in both. Instead of anger, this arouses
love FOR both because IT ESTABLISHES INCLUSION.
Perceiving equality, it perceives equal needs. This invites
Atonement automatically, because Atonement IS the one
need which is universal.
1153. To perceive YOURSELF in this way is the ONLY
way in which you can find happiness in this world. This is
because it is the acknowledgement that you are NOT in this
world, and the world IS unhappy. How else can you find joy
in a joyless place EXCEPT by realizing that you are NOT
there? You cannot be anywhere that God did not put you,
and God created you as part of HIM. That is both WHERE
you are and WHAT you are. This is COMPLETELY
unalterable. It is total inclusion. You cannot change this now
or ever. It is forever true. It is NOT a belief, but a fact.
1154. Anything that God creates is as true as He is. Its truth
lies only in its perfect inclusion in Him Who alone IS perfect.
To deny this in any way is to deny yourself AND Him,
because it is impossible to accept one without the other.
The perfect equality of the Holy Spirit's perception is the
counterpart of the perfect equality of God's knowing. The
ego's perception has no counterpart in God, but the Holy
Spirit remains the bridge between perception and knowledge.
By enabling you to use perception in a way that PARALLELS
knowledge, you will ultimately meet it and KNOW it."
(T-6.II.1:4-7:3)
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