V. The Ego's Use of Guilt

T-5.V.1. Perhaps some of our concepts will become clearer and more personally meaningful if the ego's use of guilt is clarified. ² The ego has a purpose, just as the Holy Spirit has. ³ The ego's purpose is fear, because only the fearful can be egotistic. ⁴ The ego's logic is as impeccable as that of the Holy Spirit, because your mind has the means at its disposal to side with Heaven or earth, as it elects. ⁵ But again, remember that both are in you.

T-5.V.2. In Heaven there is no guilt, because the Kingdom is attained through the Atonement, which releases you to create. ² The word "create" is appropriate here because, once what you have made is undone by the Holy Spirit, the blessed residue is restored and therefore continues in creation. ³ What is truly blessed is incapable of giving rise to guilt, and must give rise to joy. ⁴ This makes it invulnerable to the ego because its peace is unassailable. ⁵ It is invulnerable to disruption because it is whole. ⁶ Guilt is always disruptive. ⁷ Anything that engenders fear is divisive because it obeys the law of division. ⁸ If the ego is the symbol of the separation, it is also the symbol of guilt. ⁹ Guilt is more than merely not of God. ¹⁰ It is the symbol of attack on God. ¹¹ This is a totally meaningless concept except to the ego, but do not underestimate the power of the ego's belief in it. ¹² This is the belief from which all guilt really stems.

T-5.V.3. The ego is the part of the mind that believes in division. ² How could part of God detach itself without believing it is attacking Him? ³ We spoke before of the authority problem as based on the concept of usurping God's power. ⁴ The ego believes that this is what you did because it believes that it is you. ⁵ If you identify with the ego, you must perceive yourself as guilty. ⁶ Whenever you respond to your ego you will experience guilt, and you will fear punishment. ⁷ The ego is quite literally a fearful thought. ⁸ However ridiculous the idea of attacking God may be to the sane mind, never forget that the ego is not sane. ⁹ It represents a delusional system, and speaks for it. ¹⁰ Listening to the ego's voice means that you believe it is possible to attack God, and that a part of Him has been torn away by you. ¹¹ Fear of retaliation from without follows, because the severity of the guilt is so acute that it must be projected.

T-5.V.4. Whatever you accept into your mind has reality for you. ² It is your acceptance of it that makes it real. ³ If you enthrone the ego in your mind, your allowing it to enter makes it your reality. ⁴ This is because the mind is capable of creating reality or making illusions. ⁵ I said before that you must learn to think with God. ⁶ To think with Him is to think like Him. ⁷ This engenders joy, not guilt, because it is natural. ⁸ Guilt is a sure sign that your thinking is unnatural. ⁹ Unnatural thinking will always be attended with guilt, because it is the belief in sin. ¹⁰ The ego does not perceive sin as a lack of love, but as a positive act of assault. ¹¹ This is necessary to the ego's survival because, as soon as you regard sin as a lack, you will automatically attempt to remedy the situation. ¹² And you will succeed. ¹³ The ego regards this as doom, but you must learn to regard it as freedom.

T-5.V.5. The guiltless mind cannot suffer. ² Being sane, the mind heals the body because it has been healed. ³ The sane mind cannot conceive of illness because it cannot conceive of attacking anyone or anything. ⁴ I said before that illness is a form of magic. ⁵ It might be better to say that it is a form of magical solution. ⁶ The ego believes that by punishing itself it will mitigate the punishment of God. ⁷ Yet even in this it is arrogant. ⁸ It attributes to God a punishing intent, and then takes this intent as its own prerogative. ⁹ It tries to usurp all the functions of God as it perceives them, because it recognizes that only total allegiance can be trusted.

T-5.V.6. The ego cannot oppose the laws of God any more than you can, but it can interpret them according to what it wants, just as you can. ² That is why the question, "What do you want?" must be answered. ³ You are answering it every minute and every second, and each moment of decision is a judgment that is anything but ineffectual. ⁴ Its effects will follow automatically until the decision is changed. ⁵ Remember, though, that the alternatives themselves are unalterable. ⁶ The Holy Spirit, like the ego, is a decision. ⁷ Together they constitute all the alternatives the mind can accept and obey. ⁸ The Holy Spirit and the ego are the only choices open to you. ⁹ God created one, and so you cannot eradicate it. ¹⁰ You made the other, and so you can. ¹¹ Only what God creates is irreversible and unchangeable. ¹² What you made can always be changed because, when you do not think like God, you are not really thinking at all. ¹³ Delusional ideas are not real thoughts, although you can believe in them. ¹⁴ But you are wrong. ¹⁵ The function of thought comes from God and is in God. ¹⁶ As part of His Thought, you cannot think apart from Him.

T-5.V.7. Irrational thought is disordered thought. ² God Himself orders your thought because your thought was created by Him. ³ Guilt feelings are always a sign that you do not know this. ⁴ They also show that you believe you can think apart from God, and want to. ⁵ Every disordered thought is attended by guilt at its inception, and maintained by guilt in its continuance. ⁶ Guilt is inescapable by those who believe they order their own thoughts, and must therefore obey their dictates. ⁷ This makes them feel responsible for their errors without recognizing that, by accepting this responsibility, they are reacting irresponsibly. ⁸ If the sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself, and I assure you that it is, then the responsibility for what is atoned for cannot be yours. ⁹ The dilemma cannot be resolved except by accepting the solution of undoing. ¹⁰ You would be responsible for the effects of all your wrong thinking if it could not be undone. ¹¹ The purpose of the Atonement is to save the past in purified form only. ¹² If you accept the remedy for disordered thought, a remedy whose efficacy is beyond doubt, how can its symptoms remain?

T-5.V.8. The continuing decision to remain separated is the only possible reason for continuing guilt feelings. ² We have said this before, but did not emphasize the destructive results of the decision. ³ Any decision of the mind will affect both behavior and experience. ⁴ What you want you expect. ⁵ This is not delusional. ⁶ Your mind does make your future, and it will turn it back to full creation at any minute if it accepts the Atonement first. ⁷ It will also return to full creation the instant it has done so. ⁸ Having given up its disordered thought, the proper ordering of thought becomes quite apparent.