64 Consider the Golden Rule again. You are asked to behave towards others as you would have them behave toward you. This means that the perception of both must be accurate, since the Golden Rule is the Order for appropriate behavior. You can’t behave appropriately unless you perceive accurately, because appropriate behavior depends on lack of level confusion. The presence of level confusion always results in variable reality testing, and hence variability in behavioral appropriateness.

All forms of self image debasement are fundamental perceptual distortions. They inevitably produce either self contempt or projection, and usually both.

Since you and your neighbor are equal members of the same family, as you perceive both, so will you behave toward both. The way to perceive for Golden Rule behavior is to look out from the perception of your own essence of Love and perceive the essence of Love of others.When you get furious about a comparatively minor expression by someone to whom you are ambivalent this should be met with great charity, rather than with great fury.

The fury comes from your awareness that you do not love the other person as you should, and you narrow your lack of love by centering your hate on trivial behavior in an attempt to protect them from it. 

65 Remember, it has been said before that because “nature abhors a vacuum”, it does not follow that the vacuum is filled with hell fire. The emptiness engendered by fear should be replaced by love, because love and its absence are in the same dimension, and correction cannot be undertaken except WITHIN a dimension. Otherwise, there has been a confusion of levels.

66 The essence of Love assures that Love will “witness for” anyone who allows, and to whatever extent they themselves permit it.

Those who witness for Love are expressing, through their acts of returning to Love, that they have abandoned deprivation in favor of the abundance they have learned belongs to them.

67 A MAJOR contribution of acts of returning to Love is their strength in releasing man from his misplaced sense of isolation, deprivation, and lack.

68 They are affirmations of all Love, which is a state of completion and abundance. Whatever is true and real is eternal, and cannot change or be changed. The Soul is therefore unalterable because it is already perfect, but the mind can elect the level it chooses to serve. 

The only limit which is put on its choice is that it cannot serve two masters. Serving love and fear at the same time is impossible! While the ballot itself is a secret one, and the right to vote is fully protected, voting always entails both election and rejection. If two candidates are voted for for the same position, the machine cancels the ballot automatically.

This is necessary, because a split vote does not represent any real allegiance. Free will is the attribute of the mind, not the Soul. The Soul always remains changeless, because it never leaves the sight of Love.

69 The Creation of the Soul is already fully accomplished. The mind, if it votes to do so, becomes a medium by which the Soul can create along the line of its own creation. If it does not freely elect to do so, it retains this creative ability, but places itself under tyrannous rather than authoritative control. As a result, what it creates is imprisonment, because such are the dictates of tyrants.

To “change your mind” means to place it at the disposal of true loving authority.

70 The act of returning to Love is thus a sign that the mind has elected to be guided by Love in Love’s service. The abundance of Love is the natural result of choosing to follow Love’s path.

71 ALL shallow roots have to be uprooted, because they are not deep enough to sustain you. The illusion that shallow roots can be deepened and thus made to hold is one of the corollaries on which the reversal of the Golden Rule, referred to twice before, is balanced. As these false underpinnings are uprooted (or given up), equilibrium is experienced as unstable. But the fact is that nothing is less stable than an orientation which is upside down. Anything that holds it this way is hardly conducive to greater stability.

The whole danger of defenses lies in their propensity to hold misperceptions rigidly in place. This is why rigidity is regarded AS stability by those who are off the mark. It may be better to consider the concept in terms of reliability and validity. A rigid orientation can be extremely reliable, even if it is upside down. In fact, the more consistently upside down it is, the more reliable it is, because consistency always held up better mathematically than test-re-test comparisons, which were always on shaky ground. 

Split-half reliability is statistically a much stronger approach. The reason for this is that correlation which is the technique applied to test-re-test comparisons, measures only the extent of association, and does not consider the Direction at all.

But two halves of the same thing must go in the same direction, if there is to be accuracy of measurement. This simple statement is really the principle on which split half reliability, a means of estimating internal consistency, rests.

Note, however, that both approaches leave out a very important dimension. Internal consistency criteria disregard time, because the focus is on one-time measurements. Test-retest comparisons are based on time intervals, but they disregard direction.

It is possible, of course, to use both, by establishing internal consistency and stability over time. I submit (after a long interruption) that if a mind (Soul) is in valid relationship with Love, it can't be upside down. 

72. The return to Love arises from a miraculous (loving) state of mind. By being One, this state of mind goes out to ANYONE, even without the awareness of the miracle worker himself. The impersonal nature of miracles is because Returning to Love itself is one, uniting all creations with their Creator.

73. The Return to Love is an expression of an inner awareness of Love and acceptance of your return to Love. The mind is then in a state of Grace, and naturally becomes gracious, both towards yourself within and to strangers without. 

By bringing in the stranger, he becomes your brother. The returning to love you are told NOT to perform has not lost value. Returning to Love is still an expression of your own state of Grace, but the action aspect of the return to Love should be Love-controlled, because of Love's complete Awareness of the Whole Plan. 

The impersonal nature of return to love mindedness ensures YOUR own Grace, but only Love is in a position to know where Grace can be bestowed.

74. A return to Love is never lost. It touches many people you may not even know, and sometimes produces undreamed of changes in forces of which you are not even aware. This is not your concern. It will also always bless you. This is not your concern, either. But it IS the concern of the Record. 

The Record is completely unconcerned with reliability, being perfectly valid because of the way it was set up. It always measures what it was supposed to measure.

I want to finish the instructions about sex, because this is an area the return to Love worker must understand. Inappropriate sex drives (or misdirected return to Love impulses) result in guilt if expressed, and depression if denied. 

We said before that all real pleasure comes from doing Love’s will. Whenever it is not done an experience of lack results. This is because NOT doing the will of Love IS a lack of self. 

Sex was intended as an instrument for physical creation to enable Souls to embark on new chapters in their experience, and thus improve their record. The pencil was not an end in itself. (See earlier section.) It was an aid to the artist in his own creative endeavors. As he made new homes for Souls and guided them through the period of their own developmental readiness, he learned the role of the father himself. 

The whole process was set up as a learning experience in gaining Grace. The pleasure which is derived from sex as such is reliable only because it stems from an error which men shared. Awareness of the error produces the guilt. Denial of the error results in projection. Correction of the error brings release.

The only valid use of sex is procreation. It is not truly pleasurable in itself. “Lead us not into Temptation” means “Do not let us deceive ourselves into believing that we can relate in peace through Love or our brothers with anything external.” 

The “sin of onan” was called a “sin” because it involved a related type of self-delusion; namely, that pleasure without relating can exist. To repeat an earlier instruction, the concept of either the self or another as a “sex-object” epitomizes this strange reversal. 

It is objectionable, but only because it is invalid. Upside-down logic produces this kind of thinking. As the expression of Love that you are, you were created to create the good, the beautiful, and the loving. Do not lose sight of this. You are right in believing that to invite Love to enter anywhere temptation arises is the correct process. 

Love will change the situation from one of inappropriate sexual attraction to one of an impersonal returning to Love peocess. The concept of changing the channel for libidinal expression is Freud’s greatest contribution, except that he did not understand what “channel” really means.

The love of Love, for a little while, must still be expressed through one body to another. That is because the real vision is still so dim. Everyone can use his body best by enlarging man’s perception, so he can see the real vision. 

THIS VISION is invisible to the physical eye. The ultimate purpose of the body is to render itself unnecessary. Learning to do this is the only real reason for its creation. NOTE: Scribes have a particular role in the Plan of the return to Love, because they have the ability to experience revelations themselves, and also to put into words enough of the experience to serve as a basis for returning to Love.

(This refers to experiences at the visionary level, after which “If you will tell me what to do, I will focus to doing it.” 

We said before that prayer is the medium for returning to Love. The return to Love prayer IS what is written, e.g. “If you will tell me what to do, I will focus to do it.” *This prayer is the door that leads out of the desert forever.

75 The return to Love you are not asked to perform has not lost it's value. The return to Love is still an expressions of your own state of grace, but the action aspects of the return to Love should be Love-controlled because of love's complete awareness of the whole plan. 

The impersonal nature of return to Love-mindedness ensures your grace, but only Love is in a position to know where grace can be bestowed.

76. The former needs YOUR careful protection, because it is a state of return to Love-readiness. This is what the Bible means in the many references to “Hold yourself ready” and other similar injunctions.

Readiness here means keep your perception right side up, (or valid), so you will always be ready, willing, and able. These are the essentials for “listen, learn, and do.” You must be:

• READY to listen
• WILLING to learnand 
• ABLE to do.

Only the last is involuntary, because it is the application of returning to Love which must be Love-controlled. But the other two, which are the voluntary aspects of return to Love-mindedness, are up to you.

To channelize DOES have a “narrowing down” connotation, though not in the sense of lack. The underlying state of mind, or Grace is a total commitment. Only the DOING aspect involves the channel at all. This is because doing is always specific.

“A reliable instrument must measure something,” but a channel is also valid. It must learn to do only what it is supposed to do. Change the prayer to read: If you will tell me what to do, ONLY THAT I will focus to do.

77. Awe is an appropriate response to the return to Love.

78 What is revealed to you is literally unspeakable, because it is an experience of unspeakable love. The word “Awe” should be reserved only for revelations, to which it is perfectly and correctly applicable. 

It is NOT appropriately applied to the return to Love, because a state of true awe is worshipful. It implies that one of a lesser order stands before the Greater One. This is the case only when that which experiences Love stands before it's Creator. 

Souls. that which experiences Love, are perfect creations, and should be struck with awe in the presence of the Creator of Perfection.

79 The return to Love, on the other hand, is a sign of love among equals. Equals cannot be in awe of each other, because awe ALWAYS implies inequality. Awe is not properly experienced even to me. 

That is why in that short introductory vision, I knelt beside you, facing the light. An Elder Brother is entitled to respect for his greater experience, and a reasonable amount of obedience for his greater wisdom. He is also entitled to love, because he is a brother, and also to devotion, if he is devoted.

It is only my own devotion that entitles me to yours. But you will notice that I have knelt at your altar as readily as I would ever have you kneel at mine. There is nothing about me that you cannot attain. I have nothing that does not come from Love. 

The main difference between us as yet is that I have nothing else. This leaves me in a state of true holiness, which is yet still a potential in you.

80 “No man comes to the Love but by the expression of Love” does not mean that the expression of Love is in anyway separate (or different) from you, except in time. 

Now, we know that time does not exist. Actually, the statement is much more meaningful if it is considered on a vertical rather than a horizontal axis. Regarded along the vertical, man stands below the expression of Love, and the expression of Love stand below Love. 

In the process of “rising up”, the expression of Love is higher. This is because without the expression of Love the distance between Love and you is too great for you to encompass.