What is Level Confusion?
A term confusing to many students is that of “level confusion.” I know that when I first came across it that I had no idea of what the actual meaning was for it was never clearly explained.
I have found though that some of the more obscure terms and teachings are not clearly detailed in any one place, but it seems that the pieces are all there and if we put them together the meaning is revealed.
And so it is with this term, and the great part is that when I finally saw what was being said I saw a principle that was full of helpful meaning.
To understand level confusion, we first must examine the meaning of the word “level” as presented by the Course.
As I previously pointed out, the Course will often use its own definition of words that may vary quite a bit from the dictionary. In this case, the dictionary definition of the word “level” does mostly apply, but what is different is in the application of the word. Humanity generally uses the word in relation to things perceived by the senses such as levels of sound, feeling or sight. The Course, however, introduces us to levels beyond this world and instructs us to solve our problems on the appropriate level.
The first question that needs to be answered is what are the various levels mentioned by the Course? Let us start with the highest and go downward.
The highest levels are represented by the Trinity itself but there is no level confusion there:
“The Son of God is part of the Holy Trinity, but the Trinity Itself is One. There is no confusion within Its Levels, because They are of one Mind and one Will.” T-3.II.5
“Only the Levels of the Trinity are capable of unity.” T-3.IV.1
What then are the levels of the Trinity? Obviously, it would be three. The first is that of the Father: who is on the highest level:
“I and my Father are one, but there are two parts to the statement in recognition that the Father is greater. T-1.II.4
As Sons our level is to “accept your rightful place as co-creator of the universe.” W-pI.152.8
We are told that the Father does not recognize this world so he created the Holy Spirit to act on a level that communication with His Sons can remain intact:
“The Holy Spirit mediates higher to lower communication, keeping the direct channel from God to you open for revelation.” T-1.II.5
We thus have the Father, the Sonship and the Holy Spirit operating on three levels, but there is no level confusion because each operates at its designated level and works on its level and not another.
The next level down is consciousness itself
“Consciousness, the level of perception, was the first split introduced into the mind after the separation, making the mind a perceiver rather than a creator.” T-3.IV.2
In this world, at the level of perception, we only take in a very small part of the whole at any time, whereas in our spiritual home we were at a level of complete awareness where we had knowledge of the whole. It thus creates level confusion if we think we are seeing the whole at the level of consciousness or perception. Many in this world think they are seeing the whole when they only see the part.
Even so, the problems of perception must be solved in this world at the level of perception:
“Knowledge is not the remedy for false perception since, being another level, they can never meet. The one correction possible for false perception must be true perception.” C-4.3
Two distinct levels can never meet. The world of knowledge and perception belong to two different worlds and “It is impossible to see two worlds which have no overlap of any kind. Seek for the one; the other disappears. But one remains.” W-pI.130.5
Therefore, to avoid level confusion we must solve problems at the level we are at before we can shift to the higher level.
In this world “The mind chooses to divide itself when it chooses to make its own levels.” T-3.IV.5
This creates more opportunity for level confusion for “one level of the mind is not understandable to another. So it is with the ego and the Holy Spirit; with time and eternity.” T-5.III.6
We see this play out when we watch political arguments of the left and right on TV or the Internet. The two are at different levels of the mind and cannot seem to understand each other or communicate. Then an even larger gap is between the mind joined with the Holy Spirit and the mind centered in the ego.
The problem with the mind that operates at the level of the ego is that it has split again into many additional levels which greatly multiplies the confusion in this world: “ideas of the ego can conflict because they occur at different levels and also include opposite thoughts at the same level.” T-5.IV.3.
Let us sum up the teachings of the Course on Level confusion.
In the realm of Spirit there are levels, but no confusion for all souls function at their correct level.
This world operates at a completely different level than does Spirit and consciousness here does not understand spirit and is confused about it. Mind operating in the ego in this world functions on many levels which do not agree with each other, which generates much additional level confusion.
Even so, we must focus on the level of perception to solve the problems of perception so we can move to the level of Spirit with the assistance of the Holy Spirit. When this occurs, there is no more level confusion.
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