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. 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 our 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](https://acimce.app/:T-2.I.1:3-4)) You may think of this attraction as having two sides. 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 of God.” 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. 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. This is not the type of attraction that the Course is speaking of. In every relationship of attraction, there is a desire to belong. You may think of any romantic novel or movie and remember phrases like "make me yours" or "you will be mine." You may also think of certain beliefs, like "a family belongs to its own home," or the belief that children belong to their parents. The idea of possessing and being possessed is part of our nature. Deep in the mind of each person lies a burning desire to return home. However, we came to this world thanks to the idea of being separated from God. So, this impulse of such irresistible attraction had to be suppressed. We did not forget entirely about Him nor about His love for us. By separating from God, we did not lose that deep desire to belong. We still desire to belong to God. This is such an irresistible attraction that we naturally want God to make us His own again. 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 His side. One of the many ways we suppress this impulse is by avoiding God. For example, atheists 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, distant, or impersonal God. For example, nowadays, we can hear many spiritual currents speaking of God as impersonal energy, the void, silence, universal consciousness, or simply a higher self. All these versions of God are attempts to avoid the desire to be possessed by God by making Him into something unable to do so. Avoiding God is one strategy. But we also have another, more prevalent, strategy up our sleeve: twisting the desire to be possessed by God into the desire to possess or be possessed in this world. Jesus typifies the four main ways in which we distort the attraction of God. I will only cover the first two forms that are the more relevant ones to the topic of money that this book is about. ## 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, romantic novels and movies 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](https://acimce.app/:T-2.I.3)) It is evident that wanting to possess another person has everything to do with their body. That's the only thing that seems meaningful to possess in this world. There are plenty of unethical and also illegal ways that humans try to possess the bodies of others, for example through slavery. There are also others that are acceptable to our society and actively sought after, for example through sex. As with other forms of trying to possess bodies, there are things related to sex that are deemed unacceptable, while others are seen as desirable and looked for. Here we can see that the classic roles of man and woman as a sexual couple are one of the more acceptable forms of this type of distortion in the times we live in. 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 an increased confused state that is projected onto sex. Since our true desire of belonging to God is not solved by posessing bodies, but we do not recognize our true desire, we will experience that sex is unsatisfactory. This may lead many to explore other avenues related to sex that will be equally unfulfilling in the short or long run. This seemingly insatiable desire to possess bodies will inevitably make us feel dirty, hurtful, and somehow evil. ## 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](https://acimce.app/:T-2.I.4)) This is telling us that we first twisted the attraction of God into the desire of possessing people. As we saw, this ends up making us feel like we can hurt others. So, we devised a solution: We can keep our desire to possess external things without being harmful to others, and hopefully this would save us from feeling sinful and keep us away from the fear this produces. The "protecting the name" superstition was an old Jewish belief that people could be saved from death by changing their names. The idea was that, once the angel of death came for them, he would not find them, as their name would not match the name he had on his list. The new solution is to divert this desire to possess bodies into the desire to possess material things. By diverting the desire, we think we are protecting the person whose body we wanted to possess. That is, whenever our harmfulness wanted to find its target on another person, it would not succeed, as we gave our desire another name. 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. It feels safer and healthier to buy some things on the internet than obsessing about making the other person yours.  An interesting point that Jesus makes in the quote above is that many relationships are formed based on the first type of possession. That is, on the desire to possess or be possessed by the other person. This desire 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, this desire to possess will tend to be compulsive. That is, it 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 doesn't 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. As we said before, these types of distortions are merely a way to suppress our true desire to be back with 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 these two distortions. The more faith we place in them, the more emptiness and fear we generate. We could say we are imposing a regime of self-starvation on ourselves. This hunger, when taken to the extreme, results in highly undesirable, and even criminal behaviors. For instance, the desire to possess bodies, in the extreme, leads to sex crimes. The desire to possess material things may lead a person to stealing. Although very few reach these extremes, there is a fear in the mind of each one of us that, in the darkest part of our being, there is a latent criminal. Have you ever had a completely inappropriate thought cross your mind? Weren't you afraid back then that you were capable of thinking of such a thing? No one really wants to see themselves as the villain of their story. So, in the midst of confusion, we come up with very creative ideas to avoid getting to the extremes, hoping that this will also reduce fear. The Course says that these ego solutions follow this logic: 1. A child of God is efficient. 2. I am not efficient. 3. Therefore, I am not a child of God. ([CE T-2.I.16:3-5](https://acimce.app/: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 allay 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. Other examples of these short circuits may be sexual dysfunctions for people with a strong desire to possess others sexually, losing it all for gambling addicts, and Alcohol-related diseases for people who want to be possessed by alcoholic drinks. These are just extreme examples that illustrate this phenomenon, but it makes you wonder what our own short-circuits are. How are we rendering ourselves less efficient as a result of accumulating fear through our possession drives? ## 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](https://acimce.app/: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, 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 with equal ease: > 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](https://acimce.app/:T-2.I.21:1)) ## Conclusion I think delving deeply into the topic of possession can help us 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. ## 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.]. But, what I am really longing for is > belonging 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." It goes without saying that this is not an exercise in abstinence. The goal of the practice is to notice your needs as they come and to remind yourself what the real need behind this is.