1. While truth is simple, it must still be taught to those who have already lost their way in endless mazes of complexity. 2This is the great illusion. 3In its wake comes the inevitable belief that, to be safe, one must control the unknown. 4This strange belief relies on certain steps which never reach to consciousness. 5First, it is ushered in by the belief that there are forces to be overcome to be alive at all. 6And next, it seems as if these forces can be held at bay only by an inflated sense of self that holds in darkness what is truly felt, and seeks to raise illusions to the light.
2. Let us remember that the ones who come to us for help are bitterly afraid. 2What they believe will help can only harm; what they believe will harm alone can help. 3Progress becomes impossible until the patient is persuaded to reverse his twisted way of looking at the world; his twisted way of looking at himself. 4The truth is simple. 5Yet it must be taught to those who think it will endanger them. 6It must be taught to those who will attack because they feel endangered, and to those who need the lesson of defenselessness above all else, to show them what is strength.
3. If this world were ideal, there could perhaps be ideal therapy. 2And yet it would be useless in an ideal state. 3We speak of ideal teaching in a world in which the perfect teacher could not long remain; the perfect psychotherapist is but a glimmer of a thought not yet conceived. 4But still we speak of what can yet be done in helping the insane within the bounds of the attainable. 5While they are sick, they can and must be helped. 6No more than that is asked of psychotherapy; no less than all he has to give is worthy of the therapist. 7For God Himself holds out his brother as his savior from the world.
4. Healing is holy. 2Nothing in the world is holier than helping one who asks for help. 3And two come very close to God in this attempt, however limited, however lacking in sincerity. 4Where two have joined for healing, God is there. 5And He has guaranteed that He will hear and answer them in truth. 6They can be sure that healing is a process He directs, because it is according to His Will. 7We have His Word to guide us, as we try to help our brothers. 8Let us not forget that we are helpless of ourselves, and lean upon a strength beyond our little scope for what to teach as well as what to learn.
5. A brother seeking aid can bring us gifts beyond the heights perceived in any dream. 2He offers us salvation, for he comes to us as Christ and Savior. 3What he asks is asked by God through him. 4And what we do for him becomes the gift we give to God. 5The sacred calling of God’s holy Son for help in his perceived distress can be but answered by his Father. 6Yet He needs a voice through which to speak His holy Word; a hand to reach His Son and touch his heart. 7In such a process, who could not be healed? 8This holy interaction is the plan of God Himself, by which His Son is saved.
6. For two have joined. 2And now God’s promises are kept by Him. 3The limits laid on both the patient and the therapist will count as nothing, for the healing has begun. 4What they must start their Father will complete. 5For He has never asked for more than just the smallest willingness, the least advance, the tiniest of whispers of His Name. 6To ask for help, whatever form it takes, is but to call on Him. 7And He will send His Answer through the therapist who best can serve His Son in all his present needs. 8Perhaps the answer does not seem to be a gift from Heaven. 9It may even seem to be a worsening and not a help. 10Yet let the outcome not be judged by us.
7. Somewhere all gifts of God must be received. 2In time no effort can be made in vain. 3It is not our perfection that is asked in our attempts to heal. 4We are deceived already, if we think there is a need of healing. 5And the truth will come to us only through one who seems to share our dream of sickness. 6Let us help him to forgive himself for all the trespasses with which he would condemn himself without a cause. 7His healing is our own. 8And as we see the sinlessness in him come shining through the veil of guilt that shrouds the Son of God, we will behold in him the face of Christ, and understand that it is but our own.
8. Let us stand silently before God’s Will, and do what it has chosen that we do. 2There is one way alone by which we come to where all dreams began. 3And it is there that we will lay them down, to come away in peace forever. 4Hear a brother call for help and answer him. 5It will be God to Whom you answer, for you called on Him. 6There is no other way to hear His Voice. 7There is no other way to seek His Son. 8There is no other way to find your Self. 9Holy is healing, for the Son of God returns to Heaven through its kind embrace. 10For healing tells him, in the Voice for God, that all his sins have been forgiven him.