Specialness - Words used in A Course in Miracles

Only the special could have enemies, for they are different and not the same. ... What God created cannot be attacked, for there is nothing in the universe unlike itself. But what is different calls for judgment, and this must come from someone "better," someone incapable of being like what he condemns, "above" it, sinless by comparison with it. And thus does specialness become a means and end at once. For specialness not only sets apart, but serves as grounds from which attack on those who seem "beneath" the special one is "natural" and "just." The special ones feel weak and frail because of differences, for what would make them special is their enemy.  T-24.I.3:5,6/4:1-5.

You are not special. If you think you are, and would defend your specialness against the truth of what you really are, how can you know the truth?                   T-24.II.4:1,2.

Your brother's specialness and yours are enemies, and bound in hate to kill each other and deny they are the same. … Here is your savior from your specialness. He is in need of your acceptance of himself as part of you, as you for his. You are alike to God as God is to Himself.     T-24.II.9:3/10:1-3.


Specialness must be defended. Illusions can attack it, and they do. For what your brother must become to keep your specialness is an illusion. He who is "worse" than you must be attacked, so that your specialness can live on his defeat. For specialness is triumph, and its victory is his defeat and shame. ...

Would it be possible for you to hate your brother if you were like him? Could you attack him if you realized you journey with him, to a goal that is the same? Would you not help him reach it in every way you could, if his attainment of it were perceived as yours? You are his enemy in specialness; his friend in a shared purpose.         T-24.I.5:4-8/6:1-4.