A Course in Miracles: Based on the Original Handwritten Notes of Helen Schucman—Complete & Annotated Edition

by Helen Schucman

We have an irresistible attraction to God, an innate drive to be “possessed” by God (i.e., to wholly belong to Him). We fear this drive yet cannot extinguish it, so we distort it into four false versions, four conventional desires for possession: 1) possessing (or being possessed by) other bodies (as in sexuality), 2) possessing things, 3) being possessed by (or possessing/controlling) the Spirit or spirits, and 4) possessing knowledge (in the conventional sense of the word). Not being true expressions of the possession drive, these do not satisfy it, and also cause negative symptoms in their own right. Therefore, as each form of possession intensifies, it produces mounting fear. As a false solution to this fear, we try to halt the expression of that form (while still hanging on to the desire for it) through the use of a “denial mechanism,” which also impairs our ability to operate effectively. The real solution involves realizing that possession in the conventional sense does not exist at all on the level of true reality, because in truth no one can be taken over by anyone or anything else. In reality, we can neither possess nor be possessed.