1959 London Closed Class

Tape 274, Side 2

Spiritual Consciousness

By Joel S. Goldsmith

Part 3 of 4

Now, so that you do not misunderstand this, let me repeat.  In the world of human beings there are two powers; on the physical level of life there are two powers. Physical force or material force can be used for good and it can be used for evil. On the mental plane, the power of the mind, the power of thought can be used for good, and it can be used for evil.  And that is what you witness as you look out upon this world.  That’s what you’re aware of all the time.  An automobile is a good material force while it’s behaving in its right place in the road and under good conscious direction; it becomes an evil material force the moment it’s out of control and probably hits someone.  Electricity can give you power, warmth, cold, but it can kill.  Everything that is of the material realm can be used for good or evil.  And the mind, the mind of man can be used for good or evil; always has been; always has been.

Back in the earlier days of the aborigines of Australia, you had there with such complete knowledge of mind power that they could bless, but they could also curse and kill, just with the power of their mind.  The Hawaiians had the good Kahunas that could heal; the bad Kahunas who could kill.  There have been sects of people in most parts of the world where there were original natives, primitive people, and all of these knew the power of mind, and how to use it for good or evil.

Now, this knowledge of mind was lost, so that the Western nations never knew about it.  And even to this day, there are very, very few people in the Western world who know the nature of mind or its powers. I might say here that psychologists and psychiatrists know absolutely nothing about the power of the mind.  They are a million miles even from getting to the kindergarten stage of a knowl­edge of mind.  But there are a few people who have experimented who have not been limited by the mis-knowledge of psychology and psychiatry and these people have discovered the powers and abilities of the mind.  In some places, there are plans afoot to use this power for the good of mankind; and in other places they are now planning behind very plush doors to use it destructively for mankind – for selfish purposes, which of course will be evil purposes.

Now at the present time, however, very little is known about the mind in the Western world.  But of this you may be sure:  mind and the power of thought can be used for good.  In this last seventy-five, eighty, ninety years, mind has been used for healing work, and it has performed good healing works.

So then, in the material world you have two powers – good and evil in material force; in the mental world you have two powers – good and evil, mind power, thought power.  The secret of life is that in the presence of God, in the presence of spiritual consciousness neither material power nor mental power is power.  They both dissolve in the presence of spiritual consciousness.

When an individual brings themself to Jesus Christ, the discords – whether of sinful nature or sickly na­ture – dissolve; the limitations of the body dissolve, disappear.  So in our modern day, all spiritual healers can bear witness to the fact that they know nothing of the nature of any power with which to overcome sin or disease or lack, or inharmonious human relationships; but that in proportion as they can attain their inner stillness without any sense of power, the discords evaporate.

We have, as the simplest of problems, colds and grippe and flu, and every metaphysical healing is a proof that germs are not evil powers, and that infection or contagion cannot operate.  Now remember it does operate in the human scene; it stops operating the moment it comes up against spiritual consciousness; on no other basis can healing take place than that these destructive powers of germs disappear.

Day before yesterday I received a letter from the States.  Two or three months ago, a lady wrote asking for help.  She had cataracts and was so blind that she could not walk on the streets without someone to lead her, and the day before yesterday I received a letter written in her own handwrit­ing without wearing glasses.

Now you know you have heard me say so often, I don’t know how to heal.  I wouldn’t know how to remove cataracts.  I wouldn’t know how to restore that woman’s eyesight.  No!  I know how to abide in inner stillness and to remember that in the presence of God there is no evil to be healed or removed or touched or reformed; that there are no powers but spiritual powers; and there are no laws but spiritual laws; therefore, laws of matter or laws of mind cannot operate.  In that consciousness something happens and outwardly we call it healing.

        So it is, you know how many of you have written to me in these past years; and you know that sitting 10,000 miles away from you no power was being exerted over you, or in you; and now you must understand what did operate – the realization that there is no material power and no mental power that is a power in the realization of God as one infinite all power.  Now that is what constitutes spiritual consciousness.  Spiritual consciousness isn’t anything mysterious; it is something sacred, it is something secret; but it isn’t mysterious.  Spiritual conscious­ness is your consciousness in proportion as you no longer give power to physical force or mental force; in proportion as you understand God as the only force and then take the attitude of Jesus Christ, “Resist not evil.”  Or, visualizing, if you can, Jesus turning to this crippled man, and saying: “What did hinder you?  What did hinder you?  Rise.  Pick up your bed and walk.”  In other words, there is no power holding you there, and one with God is a majority; therefore, the consciousness of a Jesus realizing that this which the world calls material power or mental power – either one – is not power.

In the early days of my practice, I think that unconsciously, I accepted the fact that material power wasn’t power but that mental power was power.  It took me about two years for the revelation to be given me that mental power isn’t any more power than material power.  As a matter of fact, there wouldn’t be any material power if there wasn’t some kind of a mentality to move it, to be the power.  And so, really, mental power and physical power is one.  That’s why it has often been said that thoughts are things.  But actually, mental power is no more power than physical power is in the presence of the consciousness which knows that Spirit is the only power – Spirit, God.  And spiritual law is the only law, and spiritual life is the only life.

In proportion then as we realize that, the transformation takes place in what we call the outer world, but it isn’t an outer world because there isn’t any outer world.  The only world there is, is an inner world.  God is consciousness – one infinite consciousness – and because you and I are conscious, this is definite proof that God is your consciousness and my consciousness; therefore, we have one and the same consciousness, all of us – God.  Therefore, everything that exists is embodied in this one consciousness, which is God – but now go a step further: the one consciousness which is my consciousness.  That is why you are embodied in my consciousness as this class; I am embodied in your consciousness as teacher or friend; don’t think we are outside of consciousness.  Oh no!  We are consciousness itself.  But because there is only one consciousness, that is my consciousness and yours.  Therefore, everything is subject to this one consciousness which I am, which you are.

End Part 3