1964 Chicago Special

Joel S. Goldsmith

555A – Between Two Worlds – The Mystical World

Good afternoon. The question sometimes arises as to what is the difference between a lecture—an Infinite Way lecture, and a class—Insofar as the material is concerned, there is no difference. The work that I give at lectures is the same that I give in classes. The reason you can see. It is all spontaneous, and I have no way of knowing in advance what is going to come through, and the Spirit doesn’t know whether there is a lecture group or a class group.

The reason there is a lecture is that it gives opportunities to many, to come, hear, judge for themselves whether or not there is a response to the message, or give them something to think about. And therefore it is natural that they receive the full measure of that which comes through spiritually. In a class, the difference is that there is an obligation on the part of the students. The students have agreed to come to a class for the purpose of being instructed, receiving impartations.

And this means that something of a dynamic character takes place, something requiring action. Not merely the action of the teacher speaking and imparting; not merely the action of the students hearing. Ah no. The student’s obligation is to do with what they have heard, to act upon, to imbibe, to practice until they have attained the consciousness they are seeking.

Why are we students of the message of The Infinite Way? For only one reason, and if you have any other reason, it isn’t a good one. The reason is to experience, and to maintain the God experience: actual, conscious oneness with God, an actual realization and demonstration of the Spirit of God in man. It is one thing to talk about this. It is another thing to hear about it, but it is far different to experience it.

In the more than seventeen years of the activity of the message of The Infinite Way, only five students have been chosen to be teachers and lecturers for us. You are hearing all five this week, and I know that when you have heard them all, you will agree that they have attained God realization. Their lives indicate that they have given up self. No, perhaps they haven’t given it up; self has been taken away from them, and their lives are dedicated to the Spirit, to God.

This is our goal, and it is for this reason that only as our students show forth by their lives that they are ready for such an experience, that they can come to it. No student is to become active in the message of The Infinite Way until they are successful healers, practitioners. We have no one to speak the word of truth who cannot demonstrate it. In other words, those who voice the message of The Infinite Way must be expected to be called upon to prove it. And for this reason, even after all of these years, we have very, very few practitioners. We may even have less.

And even with the start of healing work, this is not the full testimony to the actual, realized Christ. There is a step beyond the healing work before a student can undertake teaching work. But both of these steps require the actual experience of God. Not searching for God, not seeking for God, not reading books about God, but the attainment, the actual attainment of God realization, so that the life may be lived in an inner communion with the Spirit.

Again, I bring to your attention the practicality of the spiritual life, because the attainment of spiritual realization never permits one to leave society, to leave the world. As the Master instructed his disciples, remain in the world, but not of it. And as he instructed them before the ascension, “Remain in this city until you are endowed from on high.” Do not go out, do not preach, do not proselyte. Do nothing. Remain in this city until you are endowed from on high. And we say to our students. Study, practice, meditate, but do not leave the city, do not go out of your home, do not try to be workers in the world field until you are endowed from on high.

Why? Well there have been people that have gone out into the world and built a personality following, but this has no relationship to spiritual work, because spiritual work must be accompanied by signs following. The practitioner or the teacher of The Infinite Way must, by his or her presence, bring healing: physical, mental, moral, financial healing, the healing of family problems, the healing of business problems. They must do this. Otherwise they have not been endowed by the Spirit.

The Master gives us the cue when he says in the temple, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, and I am ordained to heal the sick.” Not to go away to a monastery and hide, not to leave the valley; to go to the mountaintop for inspiration, three days or forty days, but then to come down to the valleys, to the seaside, and heal the sick, forgive the sinner, show forth abundance to those in lack, bring forth the nature of God in the consciousness of man. So you see that the spiritual life is an active life and a fruitful one.