Explained: Sickness is separation. Only the separate can be sick for sickness is part of the call for punishment the guilty mind (the ego) seeks. Do not limit sickness to the body for everyone who believes they are the little self of ego-identification is unwell, for they have forgotten their perfect, peaceful, powerful Self. To truly heal is to undo the belief in separation to know the right mind of sameness, where Perfect Love resides. Find this truth within and you will give up your need to be hurt or harmed for you will know you are innocent and not guilty of sin (separation).

I. The Perceived Purpose of Sickness

M-5.I.1. Healing is accomplished the instant the sufferer no longer sees any value in pain. 2 Who would choose suffering unless he thought it brought him something, and something of value to him? 3 He must think it is a small price to pay for something of greater worth. 4 For sickness is an election; a decision. 5 It is the choice of weakness, in the mistaken conviction that it is strength. 6 When this occurs, real strength is seen as threat and health as danger. 7 Sickness is a method, conceived in madness, for placing God's Son on his Father's throne. 8 God is seen as outside, fierce and powerful, eager to keep all power for Himself. 9 Only by His death can He be conquered by His Son.

Explained: By demonstrating sickness it teaches that you are the body and no longer connected to the truth of Oneness with Perfect Love, with God. You seem to be at the mercy of an attack but the idea of attack first arose when you decided to go from being the everything (the Son of God in the truth of wholeness) to the ego-mind of separation and specialness. You have chosen to be sick, to be separate. And those that seem to be in a body that is breaking or broken are being punished by the belief in separation from Source. Do not take anything personally, for we each move through the shadows to undo this misperception of separation and sin. 

M-5.I.2. And what, in this insane conviction, does healing stand for? 2 It symbolizes the defeat of God's Son and the triumph of his Father over him. 3 It represents the ultimate defiance in a direct form which the Son of God is forced to recognize. 4 It stands for all that he would hide from himself to protect his "life." 5 If he is healed, he is responsible for his thoughts. 6 And if he is responsible for his thoughts, he will be killed to prove to him how weak and pitiful he is. 7 But if he chooses death himself, his weakness is his strength. 8 Now has he given himself what God would give to him, and thus entirely usurped the throne of his Creator.

Explained: The ego teaches that God is punishing you. This motivates you to continue to hold the hand of the ego and not God. For you only ever have two choices in every moment, even though it seems you have a myriad. To choose God is to locate the right mind hidden deep within, which is where The Treasure Map takes you. To choose the ego is to judge and make true the story of separation and attack. 

The ego teaches that it is best to punish yourself rather than God punish you. This is why you continue to run further into time, away from God, the truth of your being Perfect Love. God will not punish you but you are doing a great job yourself. This is why God has answered the call with The Treasure Map. He basically is saying, you must look at these dark thought-forms of sin, guilt, and fear that you have made and withdraw them until you uncover the truth of Perfect Love within. From here, you will be taught via revelation and not ego interpretation. You will be explained that what you see without is based upon what has been concealed within. For example, if you blame yourself for murdering God, then you will move through lessons of murder in time. It is all your projection so the sooner you undo the darkness hidden deep within the greater the light of truth and love you will see without. When you extend love you will stop seeking the ways of suffering, for you will know that you are not worthy nor deserving of such fate. 

You are in charge of your journey and the more light you extend outwards the less the projections of the seeming separate will touch you.

II. The Shift in Perception

M-5.II.1. Healing must occur in exact proportion to which the valuelessness of sickness is recognized. 2 One need but say, "There is no gain at all to me in this" and he is healed. 3 But to say this, one first must recognize certain facts. 4 First, it is obvious that decisions are of the mind, not of the body. 5 If sickness is but a faulty problem-solving approach, it is a decision. 6 And if it is a decision, it is the mind and not the body that makes it. 7 The resistance to recognizing this is enormous, because the existence of the world as you perceive it depends on the body being the decision maker. 8 Terms like "instincts," "reflexes" and the like represent attempts to endow the body with non-mental motivators. 9 Actually, such terms merely state or describe the problem. 10 They do not answer it.

Explained: The faulty problem-solving of sickness means that you are trying to relieve the guilt of the sin of separation. But this simply continues to allow the shadows to project into time, for you must withdraw the darkness to uncover the light that offers true healing: the return to love. The answer is always to undo the belief in separation when you went from being everything to nothing in time. You must remember your true Self that is not at the mercy of the events of form, for when you find your perfect, peaceful, powerful Self that is whole in holiness, how could the petty strength of the ego touch that which is so complete that fear cannot enter?

There is only thought and all thinking must be purified from fear to love, which is what God granted The Treasure Map for.

M-5.II.2. The acceptance of sickness as a decision of the mind, for a purpose for which it would use the body, is the basis of healing. 2 And this is so for healing in all forms. 3 A patient decides that this is so, and he recovers. 4 If he decides against recovery, he will not be healed. 5 Who is the physician? 6 Only the mind of the patient himself. 7 The outcome is what he decides that it is. 8 Special agents seem to be ministering to him, yet they but give form to his own choice. 9 He chooses them in order to bring tangible form to his desires. 10 And it is this they do, and nothing else. 11 They are not actually needed at all. 12 The patient could merely rise up without their aid and say, "I have no use for this." 13 There is no form of sickness that would not be cured at once.

Explained: Healing is made in the mind. When you decide to get better, you will. You will find the right doctor that makes magic happen. You will locate the perfect medication the ego deems you need. But the decision is made in the mind first before it is seen without. However. However. However. It is not made in the conscious mind but rather what is hidden within as it is the split-mind that controls the script. 

This is extremely important and the more you forgive within and gain access to the right mind you will know when you are free to leave the prison cell sickness offers.

M-5.II.3. What is the single requisite for this shift in perception? 2 It is simply this; the recognition that sickness is of the mind, and has nothing to do with the body. 3 What does this recognition "cost"? 4 It costs the whole world you see, for the world will never again appear to rule the mind. 5 For with this recognition is responsibility placed where it belongs; not with the world, but on him who looks on the world and sees it as it is not. 6 He looks on what he chooses to see. 7 No more and no less. 8 The world does nothing to him. 9 He only thought it did. 10 Nor does he do anything to the world, because he was mistaken about what it is. 11 Herein is the release from guilt and sickness both, for they are one. 12 Yet to accept this release, the insignificance of the body must be an acceptable idea.

Explained: This is why The Treasure Map is so important, for she releases the mind from the guilt of sin. It is the belief in separation that seeks the ways of suffering. When you are bound to the ego-mind you sit in the effects. You float in the shadows of suffering, hoping and praying that the next cloud does not take you down. To truly pray to God is to dissolve the darkness within that seeks suffering. This allows you to extend light outwards which offers the happiness and love you seek to know. God can only help those that help themselves, and to help yourself is to truly forgive yourself for the misperception You are sinful of separating from God. 

M-5.II.4. With this idea is pain forever gone. 2 But with this idea goes also all confusion about creation. 3 Does not this follow of necessity? 4 Place cause and effect in their true sequence in one respect, and the learning will generalize and transform the world. 5 The transfer value of one true idea has no end or limit. 6 The final outcome of this lesson is the remembrance of God. 7 What do guilt and sickness, pain, disaster and all suffering mean now? 8 Having no purpose, they are gone. 9 And with them also go all the effects they seemed to cause. 10 Cause and effect but replicate creation. 11 Seen in their proper perspective, without distortion and without fear, they re-establish Heaven.

Explained: The world transforms based upon your thinking. If you are filled with the shadows of suffering you will see a world full of sin. If you clean up your mind by shifting your thinking from the wrong mind to the right you will see a peaceful and forgiven world for you have removed the veil that distorted your sight. The idea of pain was made when you left the safety and security of Perfect Love for the ego-mind and body of separation and specialness. When you reclaim the right mind, pain, problems, and punishment dissolve and the truth of Oneness snuggles you in a ball of Perfect Love. Here, fear and the shadows of suffering cannot enter.

The darkness belongs to the wrong mind, so when you reclaim the right mind you know not of suffering or sickness for it belongs to the belief in separation. It does not happen overnight, this complete shift from wrong-minded thinking to right-mindedness, and you move back and forth between the two until you have completely dissolved every shadow seen in time. 

You cannot awaken to Perfect Love, which is the true meaning of Heaven, until the ego is completely undone and no belief in separation is within. If you become vigilant to mentally clean within each day you will soon be learning via revelation as you head Home: waking to your perfect, peaceful, powerful Self that has no need to demonstrate sickness for they are the holy Child of God. 

You must undo the fear for whilst stuck in ego thinking the truth of Perfect Love is simply terrifying to you. I have moved through this myself. Whilst it is difficult to understand you too will have to confront this, so the best way to approach it is to slowly and gently undo the fear so you are not frightened by the light.

III. The Function of the Teacher of God

M-5.III.1. If the patient must change his mind in order to be healed, what does the teacher of God do? 2 Can he change the patient's mind for him? 3 Certainly not. 4 For those already willing to change their minds he has no function except to rejoice with them, for they have become teachers of God with him. 5 He has, however, a more specific function for those who do not understand what healing is. 6 These patients do not realize they have chosen sickness. 7 On the contrary, they believe that sickness has chosen them. 8 Nor are they open-minded on this point. 9 The body tells them what to do and they obey. 10 They have no idea how insane this concept is. 11 If they even suspected it, they would be healed. 12 Yet they suspect nothing. 13 To them the separation is quite real.

Explained: To change your mind is to move from the wrong mind to the right mind which is what The Treasure Map offers. Those that follow the process of FAITH, which is what offers true healing, are God's teachers in time for they are withdrawing the shadows that project from the choice for separation from Source. Those that are sick and suffering, that will not change to the right mind by forgiving the cause, will be punished through the guilt of sin and be blinded to truth. They are so lost in ego thinking that they cannot understand that the right mind that offers true healing is to be found in the subconscious. Or that by undoing the belief in sin they will start to save themselves from sickness.

M-5.III.2. To them God's teachers come, to represent another choice which they had forgotten. 2 The simple presence of a teacher of God is a reminder. 3 His thoughts ask for the right to question what the patient has accepted as true. 4 As God's messengers, His teachers are the symbols of salvation. 5 They ask the patient for forgiveness for God's Son in his own Name. 6 They stand for the Alternative. 7 With God's Word in their minds they come in benediction, not to heal the sick but to remind them of the remedy God has already given them. 8 It is not their hands that heal. 9 It is not their voice that speaks the Word of God. 10 They merely give what has been given them. 11 Very gently they call to their brothers to turn away from death: "Behold, you Son of God, what life can offer you. 12 Would you choose sickness in place of this?"

 Explained: When you know the right mind you shall know that you are the being Perfect Love, not the body born to die. From here you cannot die for you are not the sinful separated, but the wholeness of holiness that must wake to their true Self. To be a teacher of God you must start to withdraw the shadows you see without. When you see someone suffering you can help them by undoing the darkness. This will remove a shadow they fall under and assist them to become aware of the light hidden within them. This is how we shall heal the world, as we unite to undo the shadows that project from some aspect of the belief in separation. 

 M-5.III.3. Not once do the advanced teachers of God consider the forms of sickness in which their brother believes. 2 To do this is to forget that all of them have the same purpose, and therefore are not really different. 3 They seek for God's Voice in this brother who would so deceive himself as to believe God's Son can suffer. 4 And they remind him that he did not make himself, and must remain as God created him. 5 They recognize illusions can have no effect. 6 The truth in their minds reaches out to the truth in the minds of their brothers, so that illusions are not reinforced. 7 They are thus brought to truth; truth is not brought to them. 8 So are they dispelled, not by the will of another, but by the union of the one Will with itself. 9 And this is the function of God's teachers; to see no will as separate from their own, nor theirs as separate from God's.