LESSON 26 My attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability.

1. 1It is surely obvious that if you can be attacked you are not invulnerable. 2You see attack as a real threat. 3That is because you believe that you can really attack. 4And what would have effects through you must also have effects on you. 5It is this law that will ultimately save you, but you are misusing it now. 6You must therefore learn how it can be used for your own best interests, rather than against them.

2. 1Because your attack thoughts will be projected, you will fear attack. 2And if you fear attack, you must believe that you are not invulnerable. 3Attack thoughts therefore make you vulnerable in your own mind, which is where the attack thoughts are. 4Attack thoughts and invulnerability cannot be accepted together. 5They contradict each other.

3. 1The idea for today introduces the thought that you always at­tack yourself first. 2If attack thoughts must entail the belief that you are vulnerable, their effect is to weaken you in your own eyes. 3Thus they have attacked your perception of yourself. 4And because you believe in them, you can no longer believe in yourself. 5A false image of yourself has come to take the place of what you are.

4. 1Practice with today’s idea will help you to understand that vulnerability or invulnerability is the result of your own thoughts. 2Nothing except your thoughts can attack you. 3Noth­ing except your thoughts can make you think you are vulner­able. 4And nothing except your thoughts can prove to you this is not so.

5. 1Six practice periods are required in applying today’s idea. 2A full two minutes should be attempted for each of them, although the time may be reduced to a minute if the discomfort is too great. 3Do not reduce it further.

6. 1The practice period should begin with repeating the idea for today, then closing your eyes and reviewing the unresolved ques­tions whose outcomes are causing you concern. 2The concern may take the form of depression, worry, anger, a sense of imposition, fear, foreboding or preoccupation. 3Any problem as yet unsettled that tends to recur in your thoughts during the day is a suitable subject. 4You will not be able to use very many for any one practice period, because a longer time than usual should be spent with each one. 5Today’s idea should be applied as follows:

7. 1First, name the situation:

2I am concerned about _________.

3Then go over every possible outcome that has occurred to you in that connection and which has caused you concern, referring to each one quite specifically, saying:

4I am afraid _________ will happen.

8. 1If you are doing the exercises properly, you should have some five or six distressing possibilities available for each situation you use, and quite possibly more. 2It is much more helpful to cover a few situations thoroughly than to touch on a larger number. 3As the list of anticipated outcomes for each situation continues, you will probably find some of them, especially those that occur to you toward the end, less acceptable to you. 4Try, however, to treat them all alike to whatever extent you can.

9. 1After you have named each outcome of which you are afraid, tell yourself:

2That thought is an attack upon myself.

3Conclude each practice period by repeating today’s idea to yourself once more.