1955 Kailua Study Group

Joel S. Goldsmith

tape 110A – One Power 1/4

Good morning.

Nobody’s going to believe that kind of a “good morning.” I can hear our friends way out in Seattle saying, “We don’t greet you that way.”

We are sitting out here in the home beginning a very, very unusual work; an unusual work for the message of The Infinite Way. We are gathered here in my home. Certainly we are in a setting that should provide inspiration. Close to the sea, in tremendous groves of coconut palms, and above all things we have here peace and quiet. A quiet that isn’t attainable in many places on the globe anymore. And besides that we have something else that is far beyond price. We have a united consciousness of students who have come from far places, some from close at hand, to unite in this one consciousness, in this consciousness of God’s presence.

Every one of us has problems of some nature, of some degree, problems of human existence. It would be an impossibility to live in the world, even though one weren’t of the world and not have some problem, either of personal experience or family; if not these, community, national, international. And we start off with the understanding that we are blessed in that we have these problems, not that we are cursed, but that we are blessed.

Without problems, a human stagnates. That is one reason why, when men and women retire from business, they quickly become invalids or pass from our sight. They have no problems. They haven’t enough to keep their interest awake, alert, and if they haven’t made contact with their own inner being, they have no inspiration with which to meet the daily experience. And so for the greater part of our journey, we must be grateful for problems. In the case of students of The Infinite Way, this is even truer than of others.

You will note, in the literature of the day, that the world is seeking peace, safety, and security. It is seeking a peace which is based on safety and security. This means to the world that, if there are no active wars going on, that they feel safe. It means that if we are not in the midst of a depression, that they feel secure. All of this is a false sense of safety and a false sense of security because the peace of today can be war tomorrow, the boom of today can be the bust of tomorrow, the health of today can be the accident or disease of tomorrow, and so this frantic search for safety and security is absolutely hopeless, fruitless, and a tremendous waste of time and energy.

In the metaphysical thought there is another step taken, perhaps a higher step, one in which the individual suffering from these human problems seeks to find a power through which they may overcome or meet these problems of human existence, and thereby turn sickness into health, lack into abundance, war into peace. And this is a step upward because the means through which they hope to attain this is either mental or spiritual. At least they are not seeking their good in applications of matter, in just applying a material remedy to a material condition or using one power of matter with which to meet another power of matter. You see, that is what has gotten this world into this war trouble.

In the beginning wars were fought hand-to-hand, and then with knives and spears, and later with pistols. In each case it was one powerful form of matter over a less powerful form of matter, and always the one who had the more powerful form of matter overcame the other, until we got to the age where we won World War II with blockbusters and atom bombs, probably the highest form of matter-force yet known, discovered. Now we might be coming into that promised peace we spoke of to begin with, at least from outside noises.

If it were possible for this world to discover a form of power greater than the hydrogen bomb, you wouldn’t hear much talk about peace. The world wouldn’t be interested in peace. All it would seek would be a stronger form of matter to destroy someone who has the hydrogen bomb, and as long as we had that in our hip pocket, or some other nation had it in their hip pocket, the world would be well content. It is only when we approach a period like this one, where the powers of matter are equal on both sides, where the powers of destruction are equal on both sides, that we begin to say, “Can’t we settle this without a fight?”

Some of you may remember that the Kaiser went to war because he was sure that he had a secret up his sleeve. He had the submarine, which no one else knew about and which was going to overcome the entire armed forces of the rest of the world. He was going to starve out his enemies with submarines. And of course in World War II, Hitler had his air force, which was superior to anything in Europe. Not only that, it was superior to anything that we had. And that was to be a sudden blitz.

And for a while we had the atomic bomb, so we gave up our, much at least of our armament, until we discovered that someone else had it too. This same thing happened in the realm of health. Many years ago it was a simple matter, when ill, to take medicines. But as medicine proved less and less effective, other means were sought. And so came into existence the metaphysical movements of mental science healing and spiritual science healing. And here you introduce into the world a new power, the power of the mind. The mind is a power over matter. The mind is a power over material conditions. With a directed activity of the mind you can overcome conditions of matter. This was so effectually proven that this means was later used for other purposes.

In 1915-1916 it was an impossibility for the American government to rouse the people to a state of war. They just wouldn’t have any part of it. In fact, they elected a president on just one slogan, “He kept us out of war.” And sentiment was so strongly against war that even though the government was trying its best to drive us into war, they couldn’t succeed. And finally they hit on a plan that did succeed. They used this mental power. They organized a Propaganda Bureau directed at the mind of the population. They had moving pictures made showing German soldiers shooting down school children. They showed pictures of German soldiers shooting nurses. They published pamphlets calling the Germans the Huns and showing the barbaric nature of this nation who was trying to destroy Christianity and democracy. And this Bureau so effectively worked on the minds of the people that in less than one year the infuriated masses were rousing up and crying, “Let us get at that Hun. Let us get over there.” And they got there. They got there. The government worked its way, got them there. Later, Hitler used this same means for achieving his success. He found that the power of the mind over ignorance and stupidity was tremendous. And he used every avenue of propaganda he could to vilify enemy nations, races, religions, colors, creeds.

It may be interesting to you to know that in Mrs. Eddy’s Science and Health there is a statement that the day will come when a thief will not have to enter your home to rob you. He will be able to reach out mentally and have you bring him your goods and deliver it to him. And that’s true. If an individual wished to perfect themselves in the mental arts they can do a terrible amount of damage. They can’t do it to the enlightened individual, but they can do it to the ignorant; just as use can be made of propaganda.