II. The Laws of Chaos

T-23.II.1. The "laws" of chaos can be brought to light, though never understood. ² Chaotic laws are hardly meaningful, and therefore out of reason's sphere. ³ Yet they appear to be an obstacle to reason and to truth. ⁴ Let us, then, look upon them calmly, that we may look beyond them, understanding what they are, not what they would maintain. ⁵ It is essential it be understood what they are for, because it is their purpose to make meaningless, and to attack the truth. ⁶ Here are the laws that rule the world you made. ⁷ And yet they govern nothing, and need not be broken; merely looked upon and gone beyond.

T-23.II.2. The first chaotic law is that the truth is different for everyone. ² Like all these principles, this one maintains that each is separate and has a different set of thoughts that set him off from others. ³ This principle evolves from the belief there is a hierarchy of illusions; some are more valuable and therefore true. ⁴ Each one establishes this for himself, and makes it true by his attack on what another values. ⁵ And this is justified because the values differ, and those who hold them seem to be unlike, and therefore enemies.

T-23.II.3. Think how this seems to interfere with the first principle of miracles. ² For this establishes degrees of truth among illusions, making it seem that some of them are harder to overcome than others. ³ If 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. ⁴ Errors of any kind can be corrected because they are untrue. ⁵ When brought to truth instead of to each other, they merely disappear. ⁶ No part of nothing can be more resistant to the truth than can another.

T-23.II.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. ² This principle, closely related to the first, is the demand that errors call for punishment and not correction. ³ For the destruction of the one who makes the error places him beyond correction and beyond forgiveness. ⁴ What he has done is thus interpreted as an irrevocable sentence upon himself, which God Himself is powerless to overcome. ⁵ Sin cannot be remitted, being the belief the Son of God can make mistakes for which his own destruction becomes inevitable.

T-23.II.5. Think what this seems to do to the relationship between the Father and the Son. ² Now it appears that They can never be One again. ³ For One must always be condemned, and by the Other. ⁴ Now are They different, and enemies. ⁵ And Their relationship is one of opposition, just as the separate aspects of the Son meet only to conflict but not to join. ⁶ One becomes weak, the other strong by his defeat. ⁷ And 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.

T-23.II.6. The arrogance on which the laws of chaos stand could not be more apparent than emerges here. ² Here 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. ³ It is not seen as even necessary that He be asked about the truth of what has been established for His belief. ⁴ His Son can tell Him this, and He has but the choice whether to take his word for it or be mistaken. ⁵ This leads directly to the third preposterous belief that seems to make chaos eternal. ⁶ For if God cannot be mistaken, He must accept His Son's belief in what he is, and hate him for it.

T-23.II.7. See how the fear of God is reinforced by this third principle. ² Now it becomes impossible to turn to Him for help in misery. ³ For now He has become the "enemy" Who caused it, to Whom appeal is useless. ⁴ Nor can salvation lie within the Son, whose every aspect seems to be at war with Him, and justified in its attack. ⁵ And now is conflict made inevitable, beyond the help of God. ⁶ For now salvation must remain impossible, because the Savior has become the enemy.

T-23.II.8. There can be no release and no escape. ² Atonement thus becomes a myth, and vengeance, not forgiveness, is the Will of God. ³ From where all this begins, there is no sight of help that can succeed. ⁴ Only destruction can be the outcome. ⁵ And God Himself seems to be siding with it, to overcome His Son. ⁶ Think not the ego will enable you to find escape from what it wants. ⁷ That is the function of this course, which does not value what the ego cherishes.

T-23.II.9. The ego values only what it takes. ² This leads to the fourth law of chaos, which, if the others are accepted, must be true. ³ This seeming law is the belief you have what you have taken. ⁴ By this, another's loss becomes your gain, and thus it fails to recognize that you can never take away save from yourself. ⁵ Yet all the other laws must lead to this. ⁶ For enemies do not give willingly to one another, nor would they seek to share the things they value. ⁷ And what your enemies would keep from you must be worth having, because they keep it hidden from your sight.

T-23.II.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. ² Thus do the guilty ones protest their "innocence." ³ Were they not forced into this foul attack by the unscrupulous behavior of the enemy, they would respond with only kindness. ⁴ But in a savage world the kind cannot survive, so they must take or else be taken from.

T-23.II.11. And now there is a vague unanswered question, not yet "explained." ² What is this precious thing, this priceless pearl, this hidden secret treasure, to be wrested in righteous wrath from this most treacherous and cunning enemy? ³ It must be what you want but never found. ⁴ And now you "understand" the reason why you found it not. ⁵ For it was taken from you by this enemy, and hidden where you would not think to look. ⁶ He hid it in his body, making it the cover for his guilt, the hiding place for what belongs to you. ⁷ Now must his body be destroyed and sacrificed, that you may have that which belongs to you. ⁸ His treachery demands his death, that you may live. ⁹ And you attack only in self-defense.

T-23.II.12. But what is it you want that needs his death? ² Can you be sure your murderous attack is justified unless you know what it is for? ³ And here a final principle of chaos comes to the "rescue." ⁴ It holds there is a substitute for love. ⁵ This is the magic that will cure all of your pain; the missing factor in your madness that makes it "sane." ⁶ This is the reason why you must attack. ⁷ Here is what makes your vengeance justified. ⁸ Behold, 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. ⁹ He would deprive you of the secret ingredient that would give meaning to your life. ¹⁰ The substitute for love, born of your enmity to your brother, must be salvation. ¹¹ It has no substitute, and there is only one. ¹² And all your relationships have but the purpose of seizing it and making it your own.

T-23.II.13. Never is your possession made complete. ² And never will your brother cease his attack on you for what you stole. ³ Nor will God end His vengeance upon both, for in His madness He must have this substitute for love, and kill you both. ⁴ You 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. ⁵ These are the principles which make the ground beneath your feet seem solid. ⁶ And it is here you look for meaning. ⁷ These are the laws you made for your salvation. ⁸ They hold in place the substitute for Heaven which you prefer. ⁹ This is their purpose; they were made for this. ¹⁰ There is no point in asking what they mean. ¹¹ That is apparent. ¹² The means of madness must be insane. ¹³ Are you as certain that you realize the goal is madness?

T-23.II.14. No one wants madness, nor does anyone cling to his madness if he sees that this is what it is. ² What protects madness is the belief that it is true. ³ It is the function of insanity to take the place of truth. ⁴ It must be seen as truth to be believed. ⁵ And if it is the truth, then must its opposite, which was the truth before, be madness now. ⁶ Such 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. ⁷ These are the means by which the laws of God appear to be reversed. ⁸ Here do the laws of sin appear to hold love captive, and let sin go free.

T-23.II.15. These do not seem to be the goals of chaos, for by the great reversal they appear to be the laws of order. ² How could it not be so? ³ Chaos is lawlessness, and has no laws. ⁴ To be believed, its seeming laws must be perceived as real. ⁵ Their goal of madness must be seen as sanity. ⁶ And 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. ⁷ How lovely do the laws of fear make death appear. ⁸ Give thanks unto the hero on love's throne, who saved the Son of God for fear and death!

T-23.II.16. And yet, how can it be that laws like these can be believed? ² There is a strange device that makes it possible. ³ Nor is it unfamiliar; we have seen how it appears to function many times before. ⁴ In truth it does not function, yet in dreams, where only shadows play the major roles, it seems most powerful. ⁵ No law of chaos could compel belief but for the emphasis on form and disregard of content. ⁶ No one who thinks that one of these laws is true sees what it says. ⁷ Some forms it takes seem to have meaning, and that is all.

T-23.II.17. How can some forms of murder not mean death? ² Can an attack in any form be love? ³ What form of condemnation is a blessing? ⁴ Who makes his savior powerless and finds salvation? ⁵ Let not the form of the attack on him deceive you. ⁶ You cannot seek to harm him and be saved. ⁷ Who can find safety from attack by turning on himself? ⁸ How can it matter what the form this madness takes? ⁹ It is a judgment that defeats itself, condemning what it says it wants to save. ¹⁰ Be not deceived when madness takes a form you think is lovely. ¹¹ What is intent on your destruction is not your friend.

T-23.II.18. You would maintain, and think it true, that you do not believe these senseless laws, nor act upon them. ² And when you look at what they say, they cannot be believed. ³ Brother, you do believe them. ⁴ For how else could you perceive the form they take, with content such as this? ⁵ Can any form of this be tenable? ⁶ Yet you believe them for the form they take, and do not recognize the content. ⁷ It never changes. ⁸ Can you paint rosy lips upon a skeleton, dress it in loveliness, pet it and pamper it, and make it live? ⁹ And can you be content with an illusion that you are living?

T-23.II.19. There is no life outside of Heaven. ² Where God created life, there life must be. ³ In any state apart from Heaven life is illusion. ⁴ At best it seems like life; at worst, like death. ⁵ Yet both are judgments on what is not life, equal in their inaccuracy and lack of meaning. ⁶ Life not in Heaven is impossible, and what is not in Heaven is not anywhere. ⁷ Outside of Heaven, only the conflict of illusion stands; senseless, impossible and beyond all reason, and yet perceived as an eternal barrier to Heaven. ⁸ Illusions are but forms. ⁹ Their content is never true.

T-23.II.20. The laws of chaos govern all illusions. ² Their forms conflict, making it seem quite possible to value some above the others. ³ Yet each one rests as surely on the belief the laws of chaos are the laws of order as do the others. ⁴ Each one upholds these laws completely, offering a certain witness that these laws are true. ⁵ The seeming gentler forms of the attack are no less certain in their witnessing, or their results. ⁶ Certain it is illusions will bring fear because of the beliefs that they imply, not for their form. ⁷ And lack of faith in love, in any form, attests to chaos as reality.

T-23.II.21. From the belief in sin, the faith in chaos must follow. ² It is because it follows that it seems to be a logical conclusion; a valid step in ordered thought. ³ The steps to chaos do follow neatly from their starting point. ⁴ Each is a different form in the progression of truth's reversal, leading still deeper into terror and away from truth. ⁵ Think not one step is smaller than another, nor that return from one is easier. ⁶ The whole descent from Heaven lies in each one. ⁷ And where your thinking starts, there must it end.

T-23.II.22. Brother, take not one step in the descent to hell. ² For having taken one, you will not recognize the rest for what they are. ³ And they will follow. ⁴ Attack in any form has placed your foot upon the twisted stairway that leads from Heaven. ⁵ Yet any instant it is possible to have all this undone. ⁶ How can you know whether you chose the stairs to Heaven or the way to hell? ⁷ Quite easily. ⁸ How do you feel? ⁹ Is peace in your awareness? ¹⁰ Are you certain which way you go? ¹¹ And are you sure the goal of Heaven can be reached? ¹² If not, you walk alone. ¹³ Ask, then, your Friend to join with you, and give you certainty of where you go.