1. This is a crucial question both for teacher and pupil. 2If this issue is mishandled, the teacher of God has hurt himself and has also attacked his pupil. 3This strengthens fear, and makes the magic seem quite real to both of them. 4How to deal with magic thus becomes a major lesson for the teacher of God to master. 5His first responsibility in this is not to attack it. 6If a magic thought arouses anger in any form, God’s teacher can be sure that he is strengthening his own belief in sin and has condemned himself. 7He can be sure as well that he has asked for depression, pain, fear and disaster to come to him. 8Let him remember, then, it is not this that he would teach, because it is not this that he would learn.
2. There is, however, a temptation to respond to magic in a way that reinforces it. 2Nor is this always obvious. 3It can, in fact, be easily concealed beneath a wish to help. 4It is this double wish that makes the help of little value, and must lead to undesired outcomes. 5Nor should it be forgotten that the outcome that results will always come to teacher and to pupil alike. 6How many times has it been emphasized that you give but to yourself? 7And where could this be better shown than in the kinds of help the teacher of God gives to those who need his aid? 8Here is his gift most clearly given him. 9For he will give only what he has chosen for himself. 10And in this gift is his judgment upon the holy Son of God.
3. It is easiest to let error be corrected where it is most apparent, and errors can be recognized by their results. 2A lesson truly taught can lead to nothing but release for teacher and pupil, who have shared in one intent. 3Attack can enter only if perception of separate goals has entered. 4And this must indeed have been the case if the result is anything but joy. 5The single aim of the teacher turns the divided goal of the pupil into one direction, with the call for help becoming his one appeal. 6This then is easily responded to with just one answer, and this answer will enter the teacher’s mind unfailingly. 7From there it shines into his pupil’s mind, making it one with his.
4. Perhaps it will be helpful to remember that no one can be angry at a fact. 2It is always an interpretation that gives rise to negative emotions, regardless of their seeming justification by what appears as facts. 3Regardless, too, of the intensity of the anger that is aroused. 4It may be merely slight irritation, perhaps too mild to be even clearly recognized. 5Or it may also take the form of intense rage, accompanied by thoughts of violence, fantasied or apparently acted out. 6It does not matter. 7All of these reactions are the same. 8They obscure the truth, and this can never be a matter of degree. 9Either truth is apparent, or it is not. 10It cannot be partially recognized. 11Who is unaware of truth must look upon illusions.
5. Anger in response to perceived magic thoughts is a basic cause of fear. 2Consider what this reaction means, and its centrality in the world’s thought system becomes apparent. 3A magic thought, by its mere presence, acknowledges a separation from God. 4It states, in the clearest form possible, that the mind which believes it has a separate will that can oppose the Will of God, also believes it can succeed. 5That this can hardly be a fact is obvious. 6Yet that it can be believed as fact is equally obvious. 7And herein lies the birthplace of guilt. 8Who usurps the place of God and takes it for himself now has a deadly “enemy.” 9And he must stand alone in his protection, and make himself a shield to keep him safe from fury that can never be abated, and vengeance that can never be satisfied.
6. How can this unfair battle be resolved? 2Its ending is inevitable, for its outcome must be death. 3How, then, can one believe in one’s defenses? 4Magic again must help. 5Forget the battle. 6Accept it as a fact, and then forget it. 7Do not remember the impossible odds against you. 8Do not remember the immensity of the “enemy,” and do not think about your frailty in comparison. 9Accept your separation, but do not remember how it came about. 10Believe that you have won it, but do not retain the slightest memory of Who your great “opponent” really is. 11Projecting your “forgetting” onto Him, it seems to you He has forgotten, too.
7. But what will now be your reaction to all magic thoughts? 2They can but reawaken sleeping guilt, which you have hidden but have not let go. 3Each one says clearly to your frightened mind, “You have usurped the place of God. 4Think not He has forgotten.” 5Here we have the fear of God most starkly represented. 6For in that thought has guilt already raised madness to the throne of God Himself. 7And now there is no hope. 8Except to kill. 9Here is salvation now. 10An angry father pursues his guilty son. 11Kill or be killed, for here alone is choice. 12Beyond this there is none, for what was done cannot be done without. 13The stain of blood can never be removed, and anyone who bears this stain on him must meet with death.
8. Into this hopeless situation God sends His teachers. 2They bring the light of hope from God Himself. 3There is a way in which escape is possible. 4It can be learned and taught, but it requires patience and abundant willingness. 5Given that, the lesson’s manifest simplicity stands out like an intense white light against a black horizon, for such it is. 6If anger comes from an interpretation and not a fact, it is never justified. 7Once this is even dimly grasped, the way is open. 8Now it is possible to take the next step. 9The interpretation can be changed at last. 10Magic thoughts need not lead to condemnation, for they do not really have the power to give rise to guilt. 11And so they can be overlooked, and thus forgotten in the truest sense.
9. Madness but seems terrible. 2In truth it has no power to make anything. 3Like the magic which becomes its servant, it neither attacks nor protects. 4To see it and to recognize its thought system is to look on nothing. 5Can nothing give rise to anger? 6Hardly so. 7Remember, then, teacher of God, that anger recognizes a reality that is not there; yet is the anger certain witness that you do believe in it as fact. 8Now is escape impossible, until you see you have responded to your own interpretation, which you have projected on an outside world. 9Let this grim sword be taken from you now. 10There is no death. 11This sword does not exist. 12The fear of God is causeless. 13But His Love is Cause of everything beyond all fear, and thus forever real and always true.