The world’s thinking states that the mind is a functioning of a brain contained inside a body, and that outside the body is a world. In this way of perceiving, the mind is the result of neural wirings and firings—there is no self; there is only the mechanical functioning of a biological organ, and that functioning became complex enough that it gave rise to consciousness. In this view consciousness is just a mechanical by-product of the neural functioning of the brain.

The Course states the opposite, that the world, including the body and the brain, is in the mind, and that mind is at home in Universal Being, or that which we call God.

When it is believed that the mind is a functioning of the brain, separation is perceived as real.

When it is believed that mind is at home in God, separation loses some of its reality.

When it is known that Mind is at home in God, the very idea of separation ceases to exist.