In this morning's talk, I'm going to sound like a clinical psychologist, which is unfortunately
an occupational hazard of having become one. And I want to talk about the relationship
between repression and projection, because this is extremely important in understanding
why it is essential as students of this Course that we recognize our mind and the content
of our mind so we can change. And if we don't recognize the content of our mind, namely
the ego's content of judgment, separation and hate, then there's no way we can change
it. Let me talk first a little bit in terms of theory. What I'm going to be talking about
is straight out of the work of Sigmund Freud, as so much of the understanding of the ego
is. It was Freud who perhaps did not discover but certainly recognized the importance of
which and then spent so much time describing how this process works. He talked about the
dynamic of how when we repress�and actually the Course never uses the word "repress."
It uses the word "denial." But for the Course's purposes of talking about the ego, the words
"denial" and "repression" can be used as synonyms. That when we repress or when we deny the content
of the unconscious, we inevitably will project these contents out. Freud spent a tremendous
amount of time describing in some graphic and actually rather impressive literary detail
how the contents of the unconscious mind make their way out into the world by very devious
ways, not only in our dreams but in our behavior, our slips of the tongue, find their way out
in terms of our culture, religion, art, etc. And so the basic law that he isolated for
us so that we could understand it, is that when we repress something that we find objectionable,
intolerable and unacceptable to us, we inevitably project it out. It's almost as if we push
the contents of the mind down and then once we push it down, we then push it out and project
it out. What this means is that if we don't recognize our unconscious guilt for what it
is, we will inevitably project it out in the form of attack, judgment, criticism and its
larger forms...war and all the terrible things we associate with war, including torture,
maiming, killing innocent people, destroying villages, countries, etc. And one recognizes
how this has occurred throughout history, especially when we look at Christian history,
when we find otherwise well-meaning Christians who believed that they were saved because
they accepted the love of their savior, use the love of Jesus as they believe they had
accepted it, as an excuse for waging war in what they call...in what is perhaps the greatest
oxymoron of all, waging holy wars such as the Crusades. And actually Christianity of
course is not the only religion that has done this or is still doing it. But this happens...this
unfortunate thing happens which actually Jesus talks about at the beginning of Chapter 3
in a section called "Atonement without Sacrifice" he directly makes references to Christians,
is that people who feel they're following the lord and the Prince of Peace and are not
aware of their unconscious guilt, having believed that their guilt and their sin have been washed
away by the precious blood of Jesus, how they would speak of the crucifixion and the atonement
through sacrifice and are not aware of their unconscious guilt, they will inevitably project
it out. And the same unfortunately can be seen in the relatively brief history of A
Course in Miracles where you have students of the Course who profess to be following
the Course and practicing its teachings of forgiveness ending up making judgments, condemnations
and saying all kinds of awful things about other Course students or Course teachers without
realizing that what they're doing makes no sense if they are truly practicing what the
Course is teaching. It does make sense, however, when you understand that if we are not aware
of our guilt, we are condemned to continually project it out and express it in all kinds
of hateful and judgmental forms. The answer to this is to recognize that all-important
line right near the beginning of Chapter 21 that the world we see is the outside picture
of an inward condition, meaning the decision-making mind's choice for the ego. When we find ourselves
having judgmental thoughts about someone, unkind thoughts about someone, when we have
a perception that no longer sees the Sonship as the same, that should be the clue as the
statement says right near the end of Chapter 5, "I must have decided wrongly because I
am not at peace." I realize I am not at peace if I do not include and embrace the entire
Sonship in that peace and in my forgiveness. And when I am aware that I am excluding certain
members of the Sonship, that is my clue that I have decided wrongly. That's what brings
me from my mindless state as a body seeing that I'm separate from or holier than, that
is better than other people or groups...it brings me from that mindless state to my mind
when I realize the only problem is my mind's decision for guilt. And if I don't correct
that by understanding and recognizing its disastrous and hurtful consequences, I will
be condemned once again to continually project it out and attack other people and thinking
I'm doing this in the holy name of Jesus himself. So the answer is to recognize our judgments
for what they are, projections of our guilt which occur in the mind, return to the mind
and choose again.