1. The “laws” of chaos can be brought to light, though never understood. 2Chaotic laws are hardly meaningful, and therefore out of reason’s sphere. 3Yet they appear to be an obstacle to reason and to truth. 4Let us, then, look upon them calmly, that we may look beyond them, understanding what they are, not what they would maintain. 5It is essential it be understood what they are for, because it is their purpose to make meaningless, and to attack the truth. 6Here are the laws that rule the world you made. 7And yet they govern nothing, and need not be broken; merely looked upon and gone beyond.
2. The first chaotic law is that the truth is different for everyone. 2Like all these principles, this one maintains that each is separate and has a different set of thoughts that set him off from others. 3This principle evolves from the belief there is a hierarchy of illusions; some are more valuable and therefore true. 4Each one establishes this for himself, and makes it true by his attack on what another values. 5And this is justified because the values differ, and those who hold them seem to be unlike, and therefore enemies.
3. Think how this seems to interfere with the first principle of miracles. 2For this establishes degrees of truth among illusions, making it seem that some of them are harder to overcome than others. 3If it were realized that they are all the same and equally untrue; it would be easy, then, to understand that miracles apply to all of them. 4Errors of any kind can be corrected because they are untrue. 5When brought to truth instead of to each other, they merely disappear. 6No part of nothing can be more resistant to the truth than can another.
4. The second law of chaos, dear indeed to every worshipper of sin, is that each one must sin, and therefore deserves attack and death. 2This principle, closely related to the first, is the demand that errors call for punishment and not correction. 3For the destruction of the one who makes the error places him beyond correction and beyond forgiveness. 4What he has done is thus interpreted as an irrevocable sentence upon himself, which God Himself is powerless to overcome. 5Sin cannot be remitted, being the belief the Son of God can make mistakes for which his own destruction becomes inevitable.
5. Think what this seems to do to the relationship between the Father and the Son. 2Now it appears that They can never be One again. 3For One must always be condemned, and by the Other. 4Now are They different, and enemies. 5And Their relationship is one of opposition, just as the separate aspects of the Son meet only to conflict but not to join. 6One becomes weak, the other strong by his defeat. 7And fear of God and of each other now appears as sensible, made real by what the Son of God has done both to himself and his Creator.
6. The arrogance on which the laws of chaos stand could not be more apparent than emerges here. 2Here is a principle that would define what the Creator of reality must be; what He must think and what He must believe; and how He must respond, believing it. 3It is not seen as even necessary that He be asked about the truth of what has been established for His belief. 4His Son can tell Him this, and He has but the choice whether to take his word for it or be mistaken. 5This leads directly to the third preposterous belief that seems to make chaos eternal. 6For if God cannot be mistaken, He must accept His Son’s belief in what he is, and hate him for it.
7. See how the fear of God is reinforced by this third principle. 2Now it becomes impossible to turn to Him for help in misery. 3For now He has become the “enemy” Who caused it, to Whom appeal is useless. 4Nor can salvation lie within the Son, whose every aspect seems to be at war with Him, and justified in its attack. 5And now is conflict made inevitable, beyond the help of God. 6For now salvation must remain impossible, because the Savior has become the enemy.
8. There can be no release and no escape. 2Atonement thus becomes a myth, and vengeance, not forgiveness, is the Will of God. 3From where all this begins, there is no sight of help that can succeed. 4Only destruction can be the outcome. 5And God Himself seems to be siding with it, to overcome His Son. 6Think not the ego will enable you to find escape from what it wants. 7That is the function of this course, which does not value what the ego cherishes.
9. The ego values only what it takes. 2This leads to the fourth law of chaos, which, if the others are accepted, must be true. 3This seeming law is the belief you have what you have taken. 4By this, another’s loss becomes your gain, and thus it fails to recognize that you can never take away save from yourself. 5Yet all the other laws must lead to this. 6For enemies do not give willingly to one another, nor would they seek to share the things they value. 7And what your enemies would keep from you must be worth having, because they keep it hidden from your sight.
10. All of the mechanisms of madness are seen emerging here: the “enemy” made strong by keeping hidden the valuable inheritance that should be yours; your justified position and attack for what has been withheld; and the inevitable loss the enemy must suffer to save yourself. 2Thus do the guilty ones protest their “innocence.” 3Were they not forced into this foul attack by the unscrupulous behavior of the enemy, they would respond with only kindness. 4But in a savage world the kind cannot survive, so they must take or else be taken from.
11. And now there is a vague unanswered question, not yet “explained.” 2What is this precious thing, this priceless pearl, this hidden secret treasure, to be wrested in righteous wrath from this most treacherous and cunning enemy? 3It must be what you want but never found. 4And now you “understand” the reason why you found it not. 5For it was taken from you by this enemy, and hidden where you would not think to look. 6He hid it in his body, making it the cover for his guilt, the hiding place for what belongs to you. 7Now must his body be destroyed and sacrificed, that you may have that which belongs to you. 8His treachery demands his death, that you may live. 9And you attack only in self-defense.
12. But what is it you want that needs his death? 2Can you be sure your murderous attack is justified unless you know what it is for? 3And here a final principle of chaos comes to the “rescue.” 4It holds there is a substitute for love. 5This is the magic that will cure all of your pain; the missing factor in your madness that makes it “sane.” 6This is the reason why you must attack. 7Here is what makes your vengeance justified. 8Behold, unveiled, the ego’s secret gift, torn from your brother’s body, hidden there in malice and in hatred for the one to whom the gift belongs. 9He would deprive you of the secret ingredient that would give meaning to your life. 10The substitute for love, born of your enmity to your brother, must be salvation. 11It has no substitute, and there is only one. 12And all your relationships have but the purpose of seizing it and making it your own.
13. Never is your possession made complete. 2And never will your brother cease his attack on you for what you stole. 3Nor will God end His vengeance upon both, for in His madness He must have this substitute for love, and kill you both. 4You who believe you walk in sanity with feet on solid ground, and through a world where meaning can be found, consider this: These are the laws on which your “sanity” appears to rest. 5These are the principles which make the ground beneath your feet seem solid. 6And it is here you look for meaning. 7These are the laws you made for your salvation. 8They hold in place the substitute for Heaven which you prefer. 9This is their purpose; they were made for this. 10There is no point in asking what they mean. 11That is apparent. 12The means of madness must be insane. 13Are you as certain that you realize the goal is madness?
14. No one wants madness, nor does anyone cling to his madness if he sees that this is what it is. 2What protects madness is the belief that it is true. 3It is the function of insanity to take the place of truth. 4It must be seen as truth to be believed. 5And if it is the truth, then must its opposite, which was the truth before, be madness now. 6Such a reversal, completely turned around, with madness sanity, illusions true, attack a kindness, hatred love, and murder benediction, is the goal the laws of chaos serve. 7These are the means by which the laws of God appear to be reversed. 8Here do the laws of sin appear to hold love captive, and let sin go free.
15. These do not seem to be the goals of chaos, for by the great reversal they appear to be the laws of order. 2How could it not be so? 3Chaos is lawlessness, and has no laws. 4To be believed, its seeming laws must be perceived as real. 5Their goal of madness must be seen as sanity. 6And fear, with ashen lips and sightless eyes, blinded and terrible to look upon, is lifted to the throne of love, its dying conqueror, its substitute, the savior from salvation. 7How lovely do the laws of fear make death appear. 8Give thanks unto the hero on love’s throne, who saved the Son of God for fear and death!
16. And yet, how can it be that laws like these can be believed? 2There is a strange device that makes it possible. 3Nor is it unfamiliar; we have seen how it appears to function many times before. 4In truth it does not function, yet in dreams, where only shadows play the major roles, it seems most powerful. 5No law of chaos could compel belief but for the emphasis on form and disregard of content. 6No one who thinks that one of these laws is true sees what it says. 7Some forms it takes seem to have meaning, and that is all.
17. How can some forms of murder not mean death? 2Can an attack in any form be love? 3What form of condemnation is a blessing? 4Who makes his savior powerless and finds salvation? 5Let not the form of the attack on him deceive you. 6You cannot seek to harm him and be saved. 7Who can find safety from attack by turning on himself? 8How can it matter what the form this madness takes? 9It is a judgment that defeats itself, condemning what it says it wants to save. 10Be not deceived when madness takes a form you think is lovely. 11What is intent on your destruction is not your friend.
18. You would maintain, and think it true, that you do not believe these senseless laws, nor act upon them. 2And when you look at what they say, they cannot be believed. 3Brother, you do believe them. 4For how else could you perceive the form they take, with content such as this? 5Can any form of this be tenable? 6Yet you believe them for the form they take, and do not recognize the content. 7It never changes. 8Can you paint rosy lips upon a skeleton, dress it in loveliness, pet it and pamper it, and make it live? 9And can you be content with an illusion that you are living?
19. There is no life outside of Heaven. 2Where God created life, there life must be. 3In any state apart from Heaven life is illusion. 4At best it seems like life; at worst, like death. 5Yet both are judgments on what is not life, equal in their inaccuracy and lack of meaning. 6Life not in Heaven is impossible, and what is not in Heaven is not anywhere. 7Outside of Heaven, only the conflict of illusion stands; senseless, impossible and beyond all reason, and yet perceived as an eternal barrier to Heaven. 8Illusions are but forms. 9Their content is never true.
20. The laws of chaos govern all illusions. 2Their forms conflict, making it seem quite possible to value some above the others. 3Yet each one rests as surely on the belief the laws of chaos are the laws of order as do the others. 4Each one upholds these laws completely, offering a certain witness that these laws are true. 5The seeming gentler forms of the attack are no less certain in their witnessing, or their results. 6Certain it is illusions will bring fear because of the beliefs that they imply, not for their form. 7And lack of faith in love, in any form, attests to chaos as reality.
21. From the belief in sin, the faith in chaos must follow. 2It is because it follows that it seems to be a logical conclusion; a valid step in ordered thought. 3The steps to chaos do follow neatly from their starting point. 4Each is a different form in the progression of truth’s reversal, leading still deeper into terror and away from truth. 5Think not one step is smaller than another, nor that return from one is easier. 6The whole descent from Heaven lies in each one. 7And where your thinking starts, there must it end.
22. Brother, take not one step in the descent to hell. 2For having taken one, you will not recognize the rest for what they are. 3And they will follow. 4Attack in any form has placed your foot upon the twisted stairway that leads from Heaven. 5Yet any instant it is possible to have all this undone. 6How can you know whether you chose the stairs to Heaven or the way to hell? 7Quite easily. 8How do you feel? 9Is peace in your awareness? 10Are you certain which way you go? 11And are you sure the goal of Heaven can be reached? 12If not, you walk alone. 13Ask, then, your Friend to join with you, and give you certainty of where you go.