Recording 535B, “Christ As the Consciousness of Mankind, continued,” from the 1963 Los Angeles Special Class, is a source for Chapter 12, “Christ As the Consciousness of Mankind,” in Consciousness Is What I Am.
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In this chapter and the source recording 535B, Joel begins by reminding us how illumined individuals come into their high state of consciousness. Then, he describes the second coming of Christ and the meaning of “Christ as the consciousness of mankind.” Finally, he explains the role we can play in uplifting humanity and revealing the Christ as the consciousness of mankind.
In this optional study material, we briefly review some key points in the lesson and then focus directly on Joel’s specific message about our role in bringing forth the light of Christ on earth. We invite you to explore the idea of “Christ as the consciousness of mankind” through some artistic medium; we reference a second source recording posted for your listening, and we suggest some interesting questions to ponder.
How do some individuals become illumined teachers and practitioners?
One individual imbued with truth can bring healing to hundreds or possibly thousands of people. What sets these spiritual teachers and practitioners apart? They were drawn to the study of truth and dedicated themselves to it. At some point, they transitioned from being the man whose breath is in his nostrils to being the man who has his being in Christ. In other words, they attained some measure of spiritual consciousness, or Christ consciousness, and developed some measure of that mind that was in Christ Jesus. Then, all forms of error lost reality for them. Sin, disease, lack, limitation, and other claims disappeared from their lives and the lives of others, just as darkness disappears in the presence of light.
Human beings cannot function as spiritual healing practitioners or spiritual teachers. Personal willpower, desire, and hope will not bring about spiritual illumination. It takes the experience of the Christ, the experience of the transcendental Presence, to do that. Once an individual has that, their success as a spiritual teacher or practitioner will follow in the measure of their fidelity to their experience and realization.
Joel says that almost anyone who can open his consciousness in receptivity to the Presence within can attain some measure of Christ consciousness. If you desire to heal, teach, or give to others, be patient, remain a student, and fill your mind with truth until you have the experience in consciousness where “the Spirit of the Lord is upon you, and you are ordained.” Eventually, the fruitage will appear. Someone will ask you what you have found, or will ask you to share with them, or even ask you for help.
When Christ consciousness, or fourth-dimensional consciousness, touches us, it transforms us into the Son of God who receives the things of God. It gives us the faculty of spiritual discernment, which enables us to perceive what the mind cannot and gives us the ability to be spiritual healers and teachers. Yet many do not even try to attain this higher consciousness. They are satisfied with demonstrating human good and letting the few become teachers or practitioners.
God has always been revealing Itself to human consciousness, but only those searching for the truth have caught it, understood it, and revealed it. Even then, their students and disciples often personalized the message and distorted or destroyed the revelations of that realized consciousness.
The Master’s mission was to reveal the Christ as the consciousness of every individual, so that every individual, not just a few, might find fulfillment in the realized Christ. Each of us can attain some measure of this divine consciousness now. And, we have help—the consciousness manifested as the great spiritual lights is always available to raise us up to the fourth-dimensional Christ consciousness.
What is the “second coming of the Christ,” and what does “Christ as the consciousness of mankind” mean?
In the past, the “coming of the Christ” meant the coming of the Christ to individual consciousness. People believed the coming of the Christ was a rare experience that came only to certain individuals like Jesus, Moses, or Buddha. Now, we are beginning the era of the “second coming of the Christ,” which does not mean a physical return of Jesus. It refers to a spiritual occurrence in which Christ consciousness becomes universal as the shared consciousness of mankind.
This Christ consciousness will transform the collective awareness. It will dispel the human state of consciousness with its mortal sense of humanity. It will establish the kingdom of God on earth, and there will be no more sin, disease, or death. Children will not have to be educated into spirituality; they will be born into the awareness of their spiritual identity and the spiritual identity of all life. They will be born into immortality and will not face the limitations and erroneous beliefs that have heretofore dominated human consciousness.
What effect can the realized consciousness of an individual have?
Infinite Way students have already experienced that the activity of the Christ in the illumined consciousness of an individual or a small group can be a law of harmony to multitudes and can nullify destructive conditions. It can awaken the spiritual center of those who come within range of that consciousness.
Here and now, the Christ is being established as universal consciousness. Joel said there is already enough Christ loosed in human consciousness so that not only doing evil, but even thinking evil, brings repercussions on the doer or thinker. It is not that the Christ wreaks vengeance on them; rather, the evildoer hits up against the Christ that has been loosed in human consciousness, and the Christ-presence destroys the evil. If the person is clinging to the evil, he suffers the penalty of his own thoughts, motives, and deeds. Those who live by the sword die by the sword. They do not realize that the weapons they use against others are the same weapons that will cut them down.
However, if an individual is in sin and does not want to cling to it, and that individual comes into the presence of a spiritually illumined individual, they will be healed, not condemned or destroyed. So, if there is anything in your consciousness that you sincerely want to be free of, seek an illumined individual who can lift you into spiritual consciousness and set you free.
Develop your own consciousness to attain spiritual light.
God’s grace brings us to a spiritual teaching so that we may show forth the fruitage of Christ consciousness and be instruments for establishing Christ as the consciousness of mankind.
The experience of Christ consciousness comes through deep spiritual practice, especially meditation. In silence, you become aware of the divine presence within, and in that awareness, the Christ is revealed as the guiding and healing force in your life. When you make that transition from human consciousness to spiritual consciousness and are awakened to the presence of the Christ within, It operates through you, and you become a spiritual influence.
Every bit of spiritual light you attain increases the degree of Christ consciousness loosed in the world. Every truth you know, every experience of spiritual uplift, and every healing that takes place through your consciousness in some measure reduces sin, disease, death, and man’s inhumanity to man. Even if you are lifted only a grain, you carry that grain of spiritual light into the world, and any error that touches your consciousness begins to dissolve.
Where an individual or a group of individuals have attained some degree of spiritual light, hundreds can be drawn to that light. When hundreds attain spiritual consciousness, thousands can be drawn to their light. Those receptive to the Christ consciousness respond, are lifted higher in consciousness, and can experience healing.
We can help usher in the age of the “second coming of the Christ,” or the coming of the Christ to human consciousness universally as the consciousness of mankind, with this recognition:
I and the Father are one. Consciousness is what I am. Christ is my individual consciousness and yours. Christ lives my life, and those who touch my life, touch Christ. Anyone who touches my life, my consciousness, on life’s journey must be lifted up spiritually, if only a grain higher, with a grain less of sin, a grain less of disease, a grain less of old age, a grain less of false appetites. Sin, disease, lack, and limitation are dissolved, not by virtue of me, but by virtue of I and my Father being one.
The individuals who realize spiritual principles shape the consciousness of the new generation. Every truth realized in your consciousness becomes a law unto the consciousness of mankind. This phenomenon has endured through the ages, fostering the continual evolution of a higher consciousness in the world, and all of humanity has reaped the benefits.
Recognize the Christ in yourself and every individual.
Joel teaches that the Christ is a universal, eternal presence, the divine consciousness within each individual, the innermost reality of our being, and the true identity of mankind. Because “I and my Father are one,” every individual is inseparable from the divine source. Yet, in our humanhood, we are under a hypnotism that causes us to perceive ourselves as separate from God. Christ consciousness transcends this illusion and brings us into alignment with our divine nature, where we realize peace, harmony, and spiritual freedom.
Since Christ is your identity and since God does not favor one over another, Christ is already the identity of every individual. This is a universal truth. So, we are not trying to bring the reign of Christ to earth; we are working to awaken mankind to the realization that the Christ is already present.
As you consciously realize Christ as the identity of every individual, you are establishing the reign of Christ on earth; you are part of a pioneer movement:
I and the Father are one. I am the temple of God. I am heir of God, joint-heir to all the heavenly riches—to the omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence of God. I and my Father are one. This is a universal truth. We are all of the household of God.
When you know yourself to be Spirit, life, immortality, and you know that truth for everyone, you enable them to realize their immortality. Joel uses the tree metaphor to explain immortality, saying that the life of a tree is the life of its seeds. When a seed falls to the ground and takes root, that seed becomes a new tree, but the life of that new tree is the same life as the life of the seed that produced it, and the life of the seed that produced it is the same life as the life of the tree from which that seed came. He says that the more you can see this with the tree, the more you can realize your immortality and the immortality of others.
If you know this truth of immortality for the generation now being born, they can be born into the consciousness of immortality, or eternal life. Jesus said, “I am come that you might have life, and that you might have life more abundant.” This means that the I in the midst of you is come that you might have life and have it more abundantly; in fact, that you might have life eternal. I am life eternal; I am life immortal; I am life spiritual, and that life of me is the presence of the Christ.
When we realize the nature of God as omnipresence, we recognize the truth that God is equally present everywhere—with saints and sinners, with the religious and the irreligious. So, we do not have to wait for billions of people to turn to truth of their own accord. As we consciously raise up the Christ that is already within us, and as we realize the Christ as the identity of every individual, we are helping to establish the reign of Christ on earth instead of the reign of mortal man. We are helping to establish Christ as the consciousness of mankind.
We chose Recording 535B, “Christ As the Consciousness of Mankind, continued,” as the primary source for Chapter 12, and we heard that recording in our online sessions. The previous recording, 535A, “Christ As the Consciousness of Mankind,” is also a source for Chapter 12, and we have posted it on the same page as Recording 535B, should you want to include it in your study. To listen to recording 535A by telephone, call 1-641-715-3900 and enter 834104#.
How would you depict the concept of ‘Christ as the Consciousness of Mankind’? We invite you to explore this theme through any art form—painting, sculpture, poetry, musical composition, floral arrangement, photography, or another. If you would like to share your work, please submit a photo for posting on our website. We can post it anonymously or with your name or initials, whichever you prefer. Submissions will be accepted through November 9, 2024, and posted through November 23, 2024.
Here are a few interesting questions to ponder that were prompted by the lessons in this chapter. Did any other questions come to you?