The Course discusses twos of quite a few things. There are two worlds: the real and the unreal world. There are two voices: the Voice of the Holy Spirit and the voice of the ego. There are two thought systems: the Holy Spirit thought system and the ego thought system. There are two teachers: the Holy Spirit and the ego. There are two emotions: love and fear. There are two parts of the mind: the right mind, the home of the Holy Spirit where truth abides and the wrong mind, ruled by the ego and made up of illusions. There are two plans for salvation: God’s and the ego’s.

(SIDEBAR)

“The ego’s plan for salvation centers around holding grievances. It maintains that, if someone else spoke or acted differently, if some external circumstance or event were changed, you would be saved. Thus, the source of salvation is constantly perceived as outside yourself. Each grievance you hold is a declaration, and an assertion in which you believe, that says, “If this were different, I would be saved.” THE CHANGE OF MIND NECESSARY FOR SALVATION is thus demanded of everyone and everything except yourself.” (W-71.2:1-5)

Want to know what God’s plan for salvation is?

“Remembering this, let us devote the remainder of the extended practice periods to asking God to reveal His plan to us. ASK HIM VERY SPECIFICALLY:

What would You have me do?
Where would You have me go?
What would You have me say, and to whom?” (W-71.9:1-5)

If we remember that to change our mind means to place it at the disposal of true authority this makes perfect sense. The first quote tells us what is necessary for salvation: a change of mind. The second quote tells us how to place our mind at the disposal of true authority or change our mind.

(BACK TO THE MAIN FEATURE)

Finally, there are two selves: the holy Self and the ego self. Jesus represents our holy Self remembered. When we remove all of the blocks, wrong-minded thoughts, that block our awareness of our reality, as Jesus did, we too will stand as our holy Self. It is a process. Each block removed allows more light to shine until there is nothing but light.

At the polar opposite of the holy Self we will find the ego self. The core of this self is the ego. Vicious, malicious, suspicious, condemning, judging, narcissistic, murderous and grandiose. This core is then covered over by a split into two sections: the atheist and the martyr. The purpose of the atheist and the martyr is to make palatable what is not. As mind, if we saw the ego exposed in all of its malevolence, we would not abide it. So, we made up a story where we were not perpetrators of an attack on God, but victims. All we did was ask to be special and now God is threatening to abandon us, the atheist’s fear, or retaliate against us, the martyr’s fear.

We made up the story of the atheist and the martyr and then promptly forgot we made it up making it possible to believe it real. If we remembered we made it up, then we would remember that it was not real. This is why dissociation, or deciding to forget, is so terrifying. It is a tool that was used to move us further and further away from our remembrance of God and Self until there was left but a tiny spark. Each new layer we made up to defend against the truth, the light, and to cover and hide the original face of sin, was always promptly forgotten.

The next layer of fracturing was even more fantastical than the first. The atheist now splits into two parts as does the martyr. This fracturing is a defense against the truth.

“You see yourself as a ridiculous parody on God’s creation; weak, vicious, ugly and sinful, miserable and beset with pain. Such is your version of yourself; a self divided into many warring parts, separate from God, and tenuously held together by its erratic and capricious maker, to which you pray. It does not hear your prayers, for it is deaf. It does not see the oneness in you, for it is blind. It does not understand you are the Son of God, for it is senseless and understands nothing.” (W-95.2:1-5)

These four new fragments are now believed to be the self. This new self, this new distraction from what is really happening under the surface, is built on the foundation of the dissociated ego level and then the forgotten atheist and martyr level. It is the ego level plus the atheist and martyr level plus these four new fragments level plus the face of innocence level that make up the personality self.

Most people exist on the face of innocence level which is the furthest level from remembering. Few travel down through the levels with the Holy Spirit, learning of their unreality as they go, to the Self beyond. Deconstructing our personality self and learning of its unreality will require a certain level of willingness. Emptying our self and letting ourselves be the vessel of the Holy Spirit that He might flow through us, being His servant, placing our minds at the disposal of true Authority and becoming completely God-reliant to most is a sacrifice of self. To say we want the peace of God is one thing, to mean it is another.