The Fear to Look Within
Fear is unmasked as the ego’s guard against inner honesty, and the Holy Spirit uses joining to replace the search for sin with quiet certainty.
From the Motifs’ Teachings
From each motif's Teachings, the teachings and reversals that draw on this section, in the order of the motifs' salience here. Many draw on other sections too, listed beneath them.
Teachings Drawn from This Section
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Fear. Beneath the fear of finding sin is a deeper fear that you might look within and find no sin at all. That possibility is what truly threatens the ego. If you look with the Holy Spirit and find innocence, then the machinery of guilt, defense, and specialness has no foundation. The ego trembles not because you are terrible, but because you might discover you are not.
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Sin / Error. Looking within, the ego insists sin is there, making the fear of self-examination seem sensible. The Course poses its devastating possibility: could you look within and see no sin? Secrecy is exposed as the ego’s main defense—hidden problems become secret sins simply because they are never offered to healing.
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Fear of God. The ego warns that if you look within, God will punish you—anything to keep you from discovering there is no sin. The loud threat is a cover story; the deeper fear is innocence. Fear of God is redefined as fear of life, not fear of death. God is the only place of safety because there is no attack in Him.