Lesson 26

W-pI.26.1. It is surely obvious that if you can be attacked you are not invulnerable. ² You see attack as a real threat. ³ That is because you believe that you can really attack. ⁴ And what would have effects through you must also have effects on you. ⁵ It is this law that will ultimately save you, but you are misusing it now. ⁶ You must therefore learn how it can be used for your own best interests, rather than against them.

W-pI.26.2. Because your attack thoughts will be projected, you will fear attack. ² And if you fear attack, you must believe that you are not invulnerable. ³ Attack thoughts therefore make you vulnerable in your own mind, which is where the attack thoughts are. ⁴ Attack thoughts and invulnerability cannot be accepted together. ⁵ They contradict each other.

W-pI.26.3. The idea for today introduces the thought that you always attack yourself first. ² If attack thoughts must entail the belief that you are vulnerable, their effect is to weaken you in your own eyes. ³ Thus they have attacked your perception of yourself. ⁴ And because you believe in them, you can no longer believe in yourself. ⁵ A false image of yourself has come to take the place of what you are.

W-pI.26.4. Practice with today's idea will help you to understand that vulnerability or invulnerability is the result of your own thoughts. ² Nothing except your thoughts can attack you. ³ Nothing except your thoughts can make you think you are vulnerable. ⁴ And nothing except your thoughts can prove to you this is not so.

W-pI.26.5. Six practice periods are required in applying today's idea. ² A full two minutes should be attempted for each of them, although the time may be reduced to a minute if the discomfort is too great. ³ Do not reduce it further.

W-pI.26.6. The practice period should begin with repeating the idea for today, then closing your eyes and reviewing the unresolved questions whose outcomes are causing you concern. ² The concern may take the form of depression, worry, anger, a sense of imposition, fear, foreboding or preoccupation. ³ Any problem as yet unsettled that tends to recur in your thoughts during the day is a suitable subject. ⁴ You will not be able to use very many for any one practice period, because a longer time than usual should be spent with each one. ⁵ Today's idea should be applied as follows:

W-pI.26.7. First, name the situation:

³ Then go over every possible outcome that has occurred to you in that connection and which has caused you concern, referring to each one quite specifically, saying:

W-pI.26.8. If you are doing the exercises properly, you should have some five or six distressing possibilities available for each situation you use, and quite possibly more. ² It is much more helpful to cover a few situations thoroughly than to touch on a larger number. ³ As the list of anticipated outcomes for each situation continues, you will probably find some of them, especially those that occur to you toward the end, less acceptable to you. ⁴ Try, however, to treat them all alike to whatever extent you can.

W-pI.26.9. After you have named each outcome of which you are afraid, tell yourself:

³ Conclude each practice period by repeating today's idea to yourself once more.