The ground and excited
0+ states of
12C are investigated in a 3
α macroscopic model using the deep potential of Buck, Friedrich and Wheatley. The elimination of forbidden
states is performed either by constructing the
allowed state space explicitly or by using the orthogonalizing pseudopotential. The well-known enigmatic behavior of the latter approach is resolved. It is safe to define the forbidden
states referring to the underlying microscopic model.