I have invented the world I see.
1. Today we continue developing the theme of cause and effect.
²You are not the victim of the world you see because you made it.I
³You can give it up just as easily as you made it.
⁴You will see it or not see it, as you wish.
⁵As long as you want it, you will see it; when you no longer want it, you will not see it.II
2. Today’s idea, like the previous ones, applies both to your inner world and to the outer world, which are actually the same.
²However, since you see them as different, today’s practice periods will also include two phases: one devoted to the world you see outside, and the other to the world you see in your mind.
³In today’s exercises, try to introduce the thought that both are in your own imagination.
3. Once again, begin the morning and evening practice periods by repeating today’s idea two or three times as you look slowly around at the world you see outside yourself.
²Then close your eyes and examine your inner world.
³Try to treat both worlds the same.
⁴Repeat today’s idea slowly to yourself as often as you wish, while you observe the images your imagination presents to your awareness.
4. For the two longer practice periods, three to five minutes are recommended, and no fewer than three are required.
²If you find the exercises comfortable, you may extend them beyond five minutes.
³To facilitate this, choose a time when you are likely to be undisturbed and when you feel reasonably ready.
5. These exercises should also be continued throughout the day, as often as possible.
²The shorter applications consist of repeating the idea slowly while you watch either your inner world or the outer one.
³It does not matter which you choose.
6. Today’s idea should also be applied immediately to any situation that may disturb you.
²Apply the idea by saying to yourself:
³I have invented this situation as I see it.
I You are still in the movie theater, enthralled by the film you are watching, and you laugh or cry because you have forgotten that you yourself were the scriptwriter and the director of the story. But, since you are also the protagonist, in order to play the role well you decide to forget that small detail.
Notice that you have no trouble accepting that this is exactly what happens in your nightly dreams: when you wake up, you know for sure that all the fantasies you experienced while sleeping were the product of your own mind. Well, as Jesus tells us in the Text, when you believe you wake up in the morning, you are in fact still deeply asleep, dreaming a dream of separation created by yourself. “ALL YOUR TIME IS SPENT DREAMING. Your sleeping dreams and your waking dreams take different forms, but that is all. THEIR CONTENT IS THE SAME. They are your protest AGAINST Reality, and represent your fixed and demented desire to CHANGE it to your liking.” (T-18.III.6:6–9)
II This is true, but you do not accept it because you do not want to accept it; you would rather feel yourself a victim of a hostile world than assume you are responsible for such a monstrosity. Yet that “you” which makes imaginary worlds is not the tiny personal mind with which you identify, so prone to blaming and blaming itself for everything it perceives, even for this. The world does not exist, and that personal mind has no other entity than being a delirium within the holy Mind of the Son of God. Nevertheless, given your identification with the ego, it is inevitable that you take everything seriously and personally.
The world you have invented, holy Son of God, is a symbol made up of a myriad of lesser symbols that reflect the imaginary separation from your Father. Your desires and fears appear in that dream in defined forms you consider real, but this should not surprise you, since you recognize their inconsistency in similar manifestations of your own longings and fears. Do not these figures also appear when you close your eyes at night? Do you not see them in your imagination when you daydream? You believe in them while you behold them, and it is precisely because you believe in them that you conceive them. Yet you know they are not true when you regain a bit of sanity or awaken in the morning.
None of those figures is real; no form can be real. Reality is like you, like God: a perfectly abstract idea. The Mind of the Son of God can create—like its Father—by extending its loving existence, but it can also believe in illusions. However, it cannot make them real or create anything different from its own nature. That is the Law of God.
Your personal mind believes it cannot change the forms it sees nor transgress the supposed laws that govern them. This limitation exists because the mind itself has imposed that belief upon itself; it has defined itself as limited. To change a belief is as painful and difficult for that mind as killing a child, because beliefs are the fruit of deep desires. Changing them requires wanting something different with the same intensity with which you once conceived them—or even greater.
This is a Course about will, and in it you are urged to want differently. That is why your honest willingness to change is so important and emphasized. The reason change seems so difficult is that you do not tell yourself the truth about what you really desire. You say you want one thing, but it is not true. The truth is that you want something else: exactly what you are seeing, what you are granting yourself.
The Text also reminds you of this: “This is why it is necessary to answer the question, ‘What do you want?’ You are answering it every minute and every second, and what you decide is a judgment which INEVITABLY has effects. The effects of the decision follow automatically UNTIL THE DECISION IS CHANGED. […] I repeat this statement because you have not learned it. But once again: any decision can be REVOKED in the same way it was once made.” (T-5.IX.10:3–7)
The reason you perceive pain, threat, or lack is very deep and also very hard to accept. This is because, deep down, you feel guilty for your individual identity, exclusive and separate from everything. You intend to atone for that guilt by punishing yourself. You see sin in yourself and project it onto your perceptions.
This idea, like all those contained in this Workbook, does not have to be believed, but it is essential that you respect it and consider it attentively. Careful observation will show you that it is true, and then you will be ready to forgive yourself and awaken from your nightmares.