Recording 464B, “Healing Ministry,” was not used as source material for any book.
To download or print these study suggestions, click/tap here.
We begin the Optional Study and Practice for this recording with an excerpt from one of Joel’s books. It expands the idea of contemplative meditation, which was a focus for our previous session. This excerpt is from The Heart of Mysticism, 1959 Letters, Chapter 3, “The Secret of the Resurrection.”
“Students on the spiritual path are continuously condemning themselves because they do not have spiritual experiences, or do not hear the still small voice, or because they do not feel that inner peace which passeth understanding. Often, they feel that if they have been on the path three years, or five or ten, and in all that time have not had any significant spiritual experience, that this way is not for them, or that perhaps those who claim to have had those experiences actually have only experienced their own imagination.
“All of this doubt, uncertainty, lack of spiritual awareness, or even self-condemnation stems from the fact that the student does not realize that a human being with the ordinary materialistic human consciousness cannot have this experience. The young student, seeking to know God or to have spiritual experiences or inner illumination, will have to learn that before such experiences can come to him, it is necessary that he have a developed spiritual consciousness—the soul-faculties, or power of spiritual discernment, through which these experiences can come.
“From the beginning of his study, then, the student should be concerned not so much with attaining the God-experience, with gaining an inner light or seeing a vision, but rather with developing the consciousness through which such experiences come. This consciousness is developed by reading the writings and the revelations of the spiritually illumined men and women of all time. This, of course, requires discrimination as to what constitutes the illumined literature of the world. . . .
“Even in the reading of the scriptures of the world, it is necessary to pray to be spiritually guided in this reading so as to be led to that which is the result of illumination, and not that which represents thoughts and opinions, and to pray before such reading so that the spiritual interpretation of the scripture may be given the student, rather than its literal meaning, which often is of little or no value to those seeking illumination. He should ask for guidance and direction and, above all things, for understanding in his reading, and then let that asking be followed by a few moments of complete silence to let the Spirit take hold. He should read slowly, attentively, and ponder at each step the words that are being read, going back again and again, if necessary, because it is not the quantity of material that is read that is the determining factor, but the degree of unfoldment which comes forth from the reading. Often one sentence or one paragraph is sufficient for this purpose. The student should not attempt to see how much material can be read, but rather how much light and how much understanding can be received from each sentence or paragraph that is read. In this way, spiritual discernment is developed.
“Often from such reading, one particular statement or passage will stand out above all the others, and as you close your book, you should let this passage remain consciously within you. Ponder it, repeat it, think upon it, because this passage is a seed of truth which is now being planted within you, and then after you have ceased thinking about it, that seed begins to germinate and eventually takes root, later bearing spiritual fruitage in the form of understanding, wisdom, guidance, and the spiritual experience itself.
“Every time you hear a message of truth, whether in lectures, class, or on tape recordings, the word of God is also being planted within you as a seed, or as a dozen seeds, and out of these, even one springing up into life, will be sufficient for every purpose. Your periods of meditation, in which you contemplate some passage of truth, ponder it, think upon it, and then finally settle into an inner stillness and let the Spirit bear witness with your spirit, also develop your Soul-faculties. . . .
“With this daily devotion to your reading the Word, hearing the Word, and meditating upon the Word, I give you my assurance that the spiritual experiences will come to you of their own accord, because it is inevitable that these experiences come once the latent spiritual capacities are aroused. . . . Always remember that every step of your journey on the spiritual path should be preceded by prayer. Pray for light, for discernment, for judgment, for awakening, and then there will be a message for you in every bit of inspired literature that you read.”
We suggest that you experiment with Joel’s recommendations as you study the recording for this class. There are several ways to do this.
1. Work with the recording.
2. Work with the transcript or the transcript summary.
You can obtain a transcript of recording 464B from The Infinite Way Office. A summary of the recording is provided below.
This class, which concludes the 1962 Los Angeles Closed Class, focuses on the nature of error and the nature of individual being as the basis for healing.
Evil is Not a Power
You cannot heal spiritually through the human mind. You can do some mental healing with the human mind, but that is merely changing one physical condition into another physical condition. It does not bring about the change of consciousness that results in permanent harmony.
Spiritual healing is accomplished when some measure is attained of “that mind that was in Christ Jesus,” also called “spiritual consciousness,” “Christ consciousness,” or “the Buddha mind.” When you attain spiritual consciousness, you are in the fourth dimension of life, and you can heal.
The human mind looks upon every form of evil as power and tries to destroy it, fight it, overcome it, or treat it. The human mind, which is steeped in the belief of two powers, always tries to use the power of good to overcome the power of evil, whereas spiritual consciousness reveals that evil is not a power. There is no such thing as truth overcoming error or the immortal overcoming the mortal.
The revelation about the nature of evil as no power was given to Buddha and to Jesus. Buddha had the revelation that “this is all illusion, not reality.” His healing ministry was not based on getting God do something to disease, but on the awareness that if you can see, hear, taste, touch, or smell it, it is illusion, and therefore not to be fought or overcome. It is to be recognized for its illusory nature.
Jesus attained the highest degree of spiritual realization and had the same awakening: “Resist not evil.” Why? Evil is not a power. Jesus never battled error. He recognized its nothingness.
If you accept evil as power and battle it, you are perpetuating it. The moment you concern yourself with “healing somebody” or changing their condition of mind, body, or pocketbook, you’re in the dream with them, and it’s the blind leading the blind. You can heal spiritually only in the degree that you can rise in spiritual awareness to behold the illusory nature of evil: “What did hinder you?”
Evil Has Its Rise in the Universal Belief in Two Powers
The Infinite Way reveals that all evil has its rise in an impersonal source, which is the universal belief in two powers. Evil will drop out of your life in proportion as you rise in consciousness to where you recognize that God is Spirit; that Spirit alone is power; and that there is no power other than Spirit. Yes, in the human world, there is a claim of material power and mental power, but when you get above the material and mental levels into the spiritual, you recognize the illusory nature of so-called evil powers.
The Hindus misinterpreted Buddha’s teaching and began to teach that this world is an illusion, and that the body is an illusion. But this isn’t true. The world itself isn’t an illusion. This world is the temple of God. The illusion is in our sense of this world. We entertain an illusory sense of the world. God never created an illusion, and God did create a world. There is only one world, but with human sense, we see that world “through a glass darkly.” Your individual body is the temple of God, but you see it, too, “through a glass darkly.” You are seeing the world and your body through the universal belief in two powers.
Disregard Appearances
When you recognize that you are seeing “darkly” through the universal belief in two powers, you can begin to disregard appearances. You don’t disregard the people you meet, or their bodies, or their businesses. But you will disregard the appearances, knowing that you are witnessing these appearances through the illusory sense, the belief in two powers. You will ignore the appearances and realize that Spirit is the only creator; that Spirit’s universe is spiritual; and that Spirit is the only power. You close your eyes to the appearance, know this truth, and behold harmony appearing.
You can’t enter the fourth-dimensional consciousness, or Christ-consciousness, while you are trying to change appearances, because you are still in the human mind, taking up the mental sword. You cannot have a successful spiritual treatment until you understand that you are not trying to change a condition of matter, of mind, or of purse. Rather, you are ignoring all appearances and abiding in the truth of the one Life, the one Soul, the one Spirit, the one Spiritual Law.
You Are Not Responsible for Your Ills
Nothing in you is responsible for any of your ills. If you look within yourself or within your patient for the cause of the trouble, you help perpetuate it. The Infinite Way differs from the metaphysical movements in that we do not agree that there is any error in the thought of your patient.
We work entirely from the standpoint that all evil, regardless of its name or nature, is impersonal, having its rise in the “carnal mind” or “mortal mind,” which is really just a name for the universal belief in two powers. It isn’t even your belief; it is a universal belief in two powers. This is why you can be free of the error—it is not in you or of you.
If anyone looks for error in you, they are malpracticing you. You are the temple of God, and your body is the temple of God. There is nothing in you that “defileth or maketh a lie.” Whatever appears to be erroneous is merely your acceptance of the universal belief in two powers. The error isn’t in you! The error that produced your ill is ignorance of truth. No one ever told us that evil doesn’t belong to us. Things have been “our fault” almost from the time we were born, so we actually believe that we are sinners.
But every sin we have ever committed was the result of ignorance of the impersonal nature of evil. So there is no responsibility on your part for your particular ills. There is no truth to the belief that resentment causes rheumatism, or jealousy causes cancer, or fear causes something else. Disease has no mental cause. Disease is an illusion that arises from this universal belief in two powers.
To heal through the message of The Infinite Way, you must first understand that God is individually expressed as you and me, and therefore, we are the image and likeness of God, the very manifestation of all that God is. This is the truth of our being, and any appearance to the contrary is based on the erroneous universal belief in two powers. That belief is impersonal, and because God did not create it, it has no power and has no law to sustain it.
Evil Appearances are Illusions
This world is not an illusion, and you are not an illusion. It is the concept that we entertain of ourselves and the concept we entertain of this world that is the illusion. An illusion cannot be objectified; you cannot externalize an illusion. Can you objectify two times two is five? Can you objectify the water on the desert road? No. They will always be mental images in thought, illusory in nature, having no substance, cause, law, or reality.
When you perceive that the evil appearances of this world are illusions, or mental concepts, having their basis in the erroneous belief that there are two powers, you begin to see them dissolve. You no longer battle them. When you fight disease, sin, lack and limitation, you are fighting an illusion. As long as you are in the third-dimensional mind, the mind that has two powers, you can’t help resisting evil, and you will stop fighting evil only when you come up into this higher altitude of consciousness and begin to perceive the illusory nature of appearances. Then you will sit back in meditation and say, “Speak Lord, thy servant heareth” and receive impartations from within.
The only reason we fight error is because we believe it to be a power. But there is only one power. You cannot have Omnipotence and another power. Omnipotence is all power, and Omnipotence refers to Spirit. Once you have Spirit as your only power and your only law, you begin to lose your fear of material and mental powers. You do not battle or struggle, and when you stop battling evil, heaven has come on earth. There are not two places—heaven and earth. Earth is heaven when you have overcome the belief in two powers.
Impersonal and Personal Claims
Some claims are met quickly. Others take more work, and some never yield. For example, seasonal ills can be healed quickly because they are impersonal afflictions, due either to some universal belief of food, or climate, or weather. We recognize the impersonal nature and source, and that dispels them quickly.
Claims that last longer are those that have been absorbed into our consciousness personally. For instance, there is a world fear of cancer, consumption, and heart disease such that we fear them long before we get them. We may be terrified that we might get them, and if so, that prepares the soil in which they can take root. After they take root, it’s more difficult to meet them, because we don’t really believe that we’re going to get rid of them, especially if they have been considered “incurable.” So we just hang on to them.
The Healing Consciousness
Healing depends on the ability not to react to appearances; the ability to realize: “I’m not dealing with a condition that has to be fought. I’m dealing with the illusory sense of two powers, and since it isn’t of God, it isn’t. All that God made is good, and what God didn’t make wasn’t made. Evil was never made and therefore, does not exist. We perceive evil only because we are fooled by the illusory appearance.
What happens in the practitioner’s consciousness determines what happens in your experience. If the practitioner refuses to accept the appearance or fight it, but recognizes that any appearance has its source in the universal belief of two powers, is not of God, and has no substance, cause, law, or reality, you can be made free quickly, unless you are hugging your fears to yourself and battling the practitioner, consciously or unconsciously. If a practitioner can treat a belief in disease or sin with “sudden dismissal” in the realization that it is not of God, healing will come quickly.
The Human Being is Not God
Under no circumstance will a human being ever be God. In fact, no human being will ever be spiritual. In The Infinite Way, you do not lift up a human being into Christhood. You do not make a mortal into an immortal. God is I am, and that is the I am that I am. This realization brings about the death of the human, not the spiritualization of the human, and results in the re-birth as spiritual identity.
If you say, “I am God,” or “I am Spirit,” or “I am spiritual,” you are mistaken. When you attain Christ-consciousness, a voice inside of you will say, “Knowest thou not that I am God?” Then you will have attained. You will have heard it, not spoken it. When you hear within yourself, “Be still and know that I am God,” you are hearing truth. But any time you hear a human being say it, you are hearing a lie.
When a teacher receives spiritual illumination, they can say, “My peace restores harmony unto you; My grace restores harmony unto you; My presence goes with you;” because they are not saying that their personal presence goes with you, or that their personal grace is blessing you. They are saying, “My,” and that is quite different. There is an absence of the teacher and the presence of the I that I am.
Nobody can “feel” spiritual. What I am, I am, and that is my state of being. It isn’t something external to me that I can feel. When you are spiritual, you don’t know it; you just are it. You can be spiritual, or moral, or honest, but you can’t feel it without having something to compare with. So the human being cannot be spiritual, cannot be God, and cannot be Christ. But in proportion as the human being dies, Christhood is revealed.
Seeing Through Appearances
God is the substance of all form, but not the forms you see with your physical eyes. You cannot see Spirit with your eyes. What you see is a mental concept based on the belief in two powers. This is why you close your eyes in treatment or prayer—to shut out the appearance, so that you may see through the appearance to the Reality. If you keep looking at the appearance, you will want to change it, and if you try to change it, you will be fighting it. But once you perceive the illusory nature of the appearance, you can be still and let the impartation of truth come to you from within.
Meditation is important because the truth, realized or consciously remembered within us, enables us to sit back and ignore the appearance while the spiritual impartation takes place, and that is the healing consciousness. Simply repeating the letter of truth does not result in healing, even though you might be using the “right” words. But your healing work is not complete. Your work is to remember the basic principles so that you can lose your fear of appearances, but then you must settle back and receive the spiritual impartation that results in healing.
If you make prayer and meditation your way of life, you will evolve into a state of consciousness in which you do not have to use treatment. You will be living so completely in spiritual consciousness that when a call for help comes, you can dismiss the claim instantly.
Even though we begin with meditation periods that may be only ten or twenty seconds, with the continuous practice of meditation, eventually we get to the place where a meditation can last two or three minutes. Certainly, you can sit for five, ten, twelve, or fifteen minutes in a contemplative meditation, pondering some truth, but when you stop that mental activity and say, “Speak Lord, thy servant heareth,” you will find that twenty or thirty seconds of meditation is an eternity. With constant practice, you may get to that place where you can maintain a meditation for two or three minutes and can repeat that a dozen, or twenty, or thirty times a day. At that point, you are living in a continuous state of meditation, hardly ever coming out of it.
Being in the World But Not of It
The ideal way of living is to be in this world, but not of it. You can perform all the functions of your business, art, or profession, and still not be in this world. The spiritual life is not intended to set you apart in a monastery or a convent. The function of the spiritual life is to bring your spiritual influence into this world; to let your light shine. If you attain the highest consciousness, you will be able to say, “I am the Light of the world. My spiritual consciousness is the Light of the world.” Then all who touch your consciousness should benefit, regardless of what you are doing.
Think what an influence you can be if you lose your fear of appearances in the realization of God as the only power. Think what could happen if, without uttering a word of this, you walk about in the conscious realization, “You are the temple of God,” and you dismiss every bit of evil that the world presents to you. The function of this work is to enable us to rise so high in consciousness that we recognize God as the central theme of this universe and all evil as merely the impersonal belief in two powers.
Do you have a difficult situation in your own life? If so, how can you apply the principles in this lesson to that situation?