This is another Original Iwihub.com Transcript. Hilda Soon did the transcribing and Zane Maser did the proofreading.

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Soul, Mind, Body
1958 New York Closed Class
Joel S. Goldsmith
Tape 222A

Good Evening!

Now some of these [questions] are quite simple. This one has to do with the year 1953, or the year 1960, as to what important things may or may not transpire. That comes in a little different category than ours.

I do think that 1953 the world considered it very important that Mr. Stalin passed on. In the light of history since then, I don’t know whether that was so important. Things of importance have a way of changing in the light of different events.

In this question, “The Art of Meditation” ’56, “never try to steal a human mind; and yet we must master the ability to remain in the silence without thought.”

That really is too big of a subject for an evening and the one following about treating for specific conditions, because that’s really a part of our literature. And I would say that the books, “Practicing the Presence,” and “The Art of Meditation,” and “Living the Infinite Way” will give all of the instruction in meditation and how to attain the stillness of mind without making an effort to stop the mind.

Study those three books, and you’ll have the answer to about everything there is at this moment on the subject of meditation.

Question: “What is The Infinite Way’s attitude towards church and memberships?”

Answer: It hasn’t any. Hasn’t any attitude, whatsoever.

We are states and stages of consciousness. And, in our spiritual evolution, we go through many states and states, states and stages of consciousness. And, perhaps, my idea on these subjects would not fit in with your idea on them. I don’t believe there is a “right or wrong” on those subjects. Everything depends upon where we are in consciousness at that moment.

Now, I hear parents, all of the time, tell me that they would like their children to be in some Sunday school, regardless of which as a rule, because of the good influence that it is, or perhaps to avoid the bad influence of not being in a Sunday school. And you can’t expect me to really have an answer on that, because I didn’t even know what a Bible was until I was 21 and certainly don’t know anything about Sunday school. And I feel that I’ve done all right without it. And, my brother and my sister grew up without a Sunday school, without any religion, and while they haven’t come to any of these metaphysical approaches, so far as I know, I know that they’ve also reached a ripe-age in human experience without having felt any ill effects from never having known a church religion. You might say they may have been better off. Well, maybe I would have been better off, too. But I have no way of knowing it. And, therefore, I don’t believe it.

On the other hand, I wouldn’t take a million dollars in cold cash for the experience that I had as a member of the Christian Science Church and as a worker in that church. I wouldn’t want to be without it. I don’t say it’s necessary for you, but I do say this that it was mighty important for me. And I’m grateful for it, and I always will be.

But I’m not in a position to say that because of that that you need it. On the other hand, I can stop into any church. If I’m walking along the avenue and there’s one with open doors, and I feel the need of a little meditation, I can walk into any church of any domination and feel perfectly content to sit there in the silence. On the other hand, if I don’t get near one for three, four, or five years, I don’t miss it, because the hotel room serves me the same purpose, or my home, or a park.

So what is true of me may not be true of you. And you have to go by your own sense of demonstration. If you feel that church membership can serve a good purpose in your experience, by all means have it. I did when it served my purpose; and I would again, if I had any inner leaning in that direction. If I were directed that way, believe me I would take it, but my leaning isn’t in that direction.

Now, the next question is. Oh, and I would like to call your attention also, since this question seems to come from a Christian Scientist or former Christian Scientist that Mrs. Eddy herself says in miscellaneous writings that “when the material organization has served its purpose in your experience that you must feel free to leave it.” Just the same as when the time comes for you to give up the use of the mental argument in treatment, you are to give it up.

Now, in our work, you’ve heard that often that there are two steps in our treatment work: The first step is the conscious knowing of the Truth and then the ability to be still and listen, until the Spirit of God moves, and we have the assurance that God is on the scene, and all is well. But as you advance in this work, the day does come when the first part is omitted, because it becomes a part of your consciousness. It is like knowing that 12 x 12 are 144 without actually multiplying them. You just come to a place in your mathematical development where you know it. So it is with this.

Question: Now, “what about testimony?”

Answer: In our work, the only place that testimony has is this: to illustrate a principle. Sometimes, I do mention in our work specific healings that I have witnessed. Never with any sense of just wanting to show you what good work The Infinite Way can do or what work the practitioner can do. That’s all nonsense. That belongs to kindergartens. It is to illustrate the principle that was revealed in that particular case.

Now, if I say to you that I have witnessed healings of cancer and let it go at that, I’m really just doing a little advertising. And I don’t want to be guilty of that. But if I do mention the healing of anything to you, it will only be to show you what principle revealed itself to me at that time for that purpose. So you can see that the use of testimonies must be very limited. You use them only when you want to illustrate some principle, or if some friend or relative not familiar with spiritual healing does express the desire or the need for such a thing, and you wish to say that you yourself have experienced or witnessed such healings, that’s all right. Only be very careful that you’re not advertising or boasting.

Question: “Would you please enlighten on the words, ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.’”

Answer: Actually, do you know what God gave? God gave Himself to the world as you. God the Father and God the Son are both the same. And you are that One. God gave Himself individually to this world, and you and I are that Son in our spiritual Identity. Our true being is Christhood, the Son of God. And since God the Father and God the Son are One and the same, God must have loved the world to put Himself in it. And He has. God has placed Himself in this world as you. And once you have overcome, or let us say in the measure that you overcome the belief in two powers, you begin to show forth your divine Sonship. Should the time come when you completely overcome within yourself the belief of two powers, you will stand revealed as the fullness of the Godhead bodily. For all there is to us as humans is this belief of two powers—“good and evil.”