Before we can explain where the idea of money comes from, it is necessary to take a small detour to explain the desire to possess. After all, one of the main uses we give to money is to possess material things and also to control other people who work for us.
Do not think that by separating from God we completely forgot about Him. Deep in the mind of each person lies a burning desire to return home. God did not forget about us either. He constantly calls us with His love and speaks to us throughout the day, reminding us how much He wants us to return to Him.
On one hand, we feel attracted to God, and on the other, God attracts us as if He were a force of gravity. The Course calls these two forces “the irresistible attraction to God.”
When we think of the word attraction, we usually think of a romantic relationship. Inevitably, thoughts associated with desire, repulsion, and sometimes disinterest in certain aspects of the other person come to mind. However, in heaven, our natural state is one of total attraction to God. It is the only thing we desire; the elements of repulsion and disinterest are not present there. God is perfectly attractive.
In every relationship of attraction, there is a desire to belong. If you do not believe me, think of a soap opera - perhaps romantic movies - and remember phrases like “make me yours” or “you will be mine.”
Also beliefs like, “a family belongs to its own home,” or that some people believe that children belong to their parents.
The idea of possessing and being possessed is part of the nature of this world.
By separating from God, we did not lose that deep desire to belong. We desire to belong to God. There is such an irresistible attraction to God that we naturally want God to make us His own.
It may sound strange, but deep down, each of us desires to be possessed by God. Not in the sense that a spirit possesses a body, as seen in horror movies, but in the sense that a child belongs to their parents. That is the reality in heaven, and also in this world, even if we do not realize it. This is how Jesus explains it in the original dictation of the Course:
The truth is still that the attraction of God is irresistible at all levels, and the acceptance of this totally unavoidable truth is only a matter of time. But you should consider whether you want to wait, because you can return now, if you choose. (CE T-2.I.1:3-4)
In this world, however, we came with the idea of being separated from God. So that impulse of such irresistible attraction had to be suppressed.
One of the many ways we suppress that impulse is by avoiding God. For example, there are atheists who deny His existence. There are also those who believe in Him but think He is someone fearful or despotic and therefore undesirable. Interestingly, there are also those who want to believe in Him but strip Him of so many attributes that He ends up being a diluted God. For example, nowadays, we can hear many spiritual currents speaking of God as impersonal energy, the void, silence, universal consciousness, and also as a higher self. All these visions are attempts to avoid the desire to be possessed by God.
Suppressing the impulse of attraction is a strategy. But we also have another strategy up our sleeve: distorting the desire to be possessed by God into the desire to possess in this world.
Jesus typifies the four main ways in which we distort the attraction to God. I will only cover the first two forms that are relevant to the topic of money that we are discussing this time.
Type 1: The desire to possess bodies or be possessed by them
Anyone who has fallen in love in this world has experienced the desire to possess the body of their beloved. As I mentioned earlier, soap operas are full of phrases that reveal the human desire to possess another or to be made theirs. Jesus typifies this type of distortion with these words:
Possession can be associated with the body only. If this occurs, sex is particularly likely to be contaminated. Possession versus being possessed is apt to be seen as the male versus the female role. Since neither will be conceived of as satisfying alone, and both will be associated with fear, this interpretation is particularly vulnerable to psychosexual confusion. (CE T-2.I.3)
Here we can see that the classic roles of man and woman as a sexual couple are the product of a distortion. The man wants to possess the woman, and the woman wants the man to make her his. However, Jesus adds that neither role is satisfactory in itself, which leads to more confusion that is projected onto sex.
Type 2: The desire to possess material things
The second type of distortion occurs when we direct the desire for possession toward material things. This is the type of distortion in which money plays a part:
From a rather similar reference point, possession can also be associated with things. This is essentially a shift from type 1 and is usually due to an underlying fear of associating possession with people. In this sense, it is an attempt to protect people from one’s possessiveness, like the superstition about “protecting the name” we mentioned before. (CE T-2.I.4)
It is interesting to read that the desire to possess material things is a form of protection. It is as if the first distortion we resort to is the desire to possess other people. However, this causes fear, perhaps because we might harm the other person. The solution we find in our confusion is to divert the desire to possess bodies and turn it into the desire to possess material things. By diverting the desire, we think we are protecting the person whose body we wanted to possess.
Have you ever felt the urge to buy something expensive after a breakup or romantic disappointment? For example, I know several people who drown their sorrows in shopping when things do not go well in love. The idea proposed here is that this behavior is due to the fear caused by the desire to possess the other person.
Another interesting point that Jesus makes in his explanation is that many relationships are formed based on the first type of possession. But this is not what keeps them together in the long run. Once the romance fades, many couples remain together by sharing the desire to possess material things.
Emergency Switches
The desire to possess bodies and material things is an attempt to fill a void. Since these goals are relatively easy to achieve, the desires to possess tend to be compulsive. This means they can lead us to a state where our behavior becomes uncontrollable.
Superficially, the desire to possess bodies and things seems completely harmless. In fact, they appear to have the power to keep fear and pain at bay.
Did your partner leave you? It does not matter; there are plenty of fish in the sea, and ‘one nail drives out another!’
Are you sad? Let’s go shopping to lift your spirits.
What we do not realize is that the fear we are trying to keep at bay is the fear of returning to God. The tension created by not satisfying this deep desire grows day by day, making the internal void even more voracious. This can lead us to place even more faith in the first two distortions of the desire to possess. And the more faith we place in these solutions, the more emptiness and fear we generate. We could say we are imposing a regime of self-starvation on ourselves.
This voracious hunger, when taken to the extreme, results in highly undesirable and even criminal behaviors. Although very few reach this extreme, there is a fear in the mind of each person that, in the darkest part of our being, there is a latent criminal. Have you ever had a completely inappropriate thought cross your mind? The idea that you could actually do it is one of the many promoters of fear.
No one really wants to see themselves as the villain of the story. So, in the midst of confusion, we come up with very creative ideas to avoid reaching the extreme, hoping that this will reduce the fear. The Course says that these ego solutions follow this logic:
- A child of God is efficient.
- I am not efficient.
- Therefore, I am not a child of God. (CE T-2.I.16:3-5)
This means that the ego’s solutions to keep fear at bay involve making you less efficient in achieving the desire you want to fulfill. For example, people who accumulate great wealth and then go bankrupt, sometimes multiple times throughout their lives. These individuals drive themselves to lose everything as a way to reduce the fear and emptiness generated by their desire to possess material things. It is similar to having an internal ‘short circuit’ that forces them to reset.
Perhaps delving deeply into the topic of possession has helped you understand the role of money a bit better. We can see that money might be a means to satisfy our distorted impulses to possess and that money itself can become the object we desire to possess or that possesses us. There is nothing inherently special about money from this perspective. It is simply a deep need for God that has not yet been healed.
Healing the Desire to Possess
The Course teaches us to redefine our concept of possession as the path to healing the distortions we participate in:
The obvious correction for all types of the possession fallacy is to redefine possession correctly. In the sense of “taking over,” the concept does not exist at all in divine reality, which is the only level where real existence is a meaningful term. No one can be “taken over” unless he wills to be. (CE T-2.I.24:1-3)
This is achieved through miracles. Miracles, which are expressions of love, are designed to fill the void left from our separation from God. By satisfying the true need, the distortions must disappear. It does not matter what type of distortion arises or how difficult and persistent it may seem. The miracle can heal it:
It is emphasized here that these differences have no effect at all on the miracle, which can heal any of them with equal ease. (CE T-2.I.21:1)
Practice
Just like in the previous practice, we will use the response to temptation and frequent reminders.
Observe your mind throughout the day. The thoughts you are looking for are those that indicate you want to possess or be possessed by something external. We have already seen some examples, but I will repeat them here:
- Feeling attracted to someone else’s body
- Craving to buy something
- Craving to eat or drink something
- Any consumption habit you cannot easily stop (checking your phone, drinking coffee, smoking, etc.)
- Any idea that you must make money or strategies to achieve it
Many of these things are part of “normal life” and may not seem like thoughts to you. That is why you need to be very vigilant to recognize the moments when you think you want these things. Once you have identified the thought, respond immediately:
“I am confused because I think possessing ———- is what will bring me happiness [peace, freedom, etc.]. What I am really seeking through this is to belong to God.”
Just like in the previous practice, close your eyes and say these words very slowly, letting their meaning enter your mind and help you change your perspective. When you feel an internal shift, that will be the moment to stop. If you feel resistance, try to continue for a few more seconds. If the resistance persists, that will also be the moment to stop.
Additionally, set your phone timer to remind you every 20 minutes of this idea:
“Today, I will not fight against my irresistible attraction to God.”
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