Chapter 5 has two classes as source recordings: 258B and 261B. We heard recording 258B in our sessions on September 5 and 12, and 261B on September 19 and 26. Recording 258B is from the 1959 Hawaiian Village Open Class, titled “Treatment – The Correct Letter of Truth.” This recording is no longer available on this website. If you subscribe to the Joel S. Goldsmith Streaming Service, you will be able to listen to the recording there. The optional study suggestions for this chapter will continue to be available here on the Goldsmith Global site. To purchase the recording and/or the transcript, click/tap here.
Recording 261B is from the 1959 Hawaiian Village Open Class, and is titled “The Nature of Error.” This recording is no longer available on this website. If you subscribe to the Joel S. Goldsmith Streaming Service, you will be able to listen to the recording there. To purchase the recording and/or the transcript, click/tap here.
In the “Across the Desk” for this chapter, Joel says,
“Human nature does not accept easily or readily such a program as is outlined in this chapter, nor does it relish the prospect of such work, but it has no hesitancy whatsoever in admitting that it wants to enjoy the fruitage of the labor when the work is faithfully done. Out of the study and practice of such lessons comes the attained illumined consciousness which in turn appears as the harmonies of life.”
Joel is referring to the program he describes in the chapter and in recording 258B for learning to give an “intelligent treatment.”
Treatment is the conscious knowing of the correct letter or truth. An “intelligent” treatment has to be more than blind faith or a just an intellectual statement of truth. There must be understanding and conviction behind the treatment; it has to come from a realized consciousness of truth.
To develop the ability to give an intelligent treatment, first we must learn the correct letter of truth. This begins with the principle that God is the one and only power, and the principle that what appears as sin, disease, death, lack, and limitation is an impersonal nothingness and has no power. When we know these principles, we never try to use one power over another, and we never refute, deny, or struggle against any evil appearance.
Once we know the correct letter of truth, we have to practice the principles by living them and using them in treatments. Joel recommends that we practice treatment often, because with persistence, treatment eventually leads to the development of realized spiritual consciousness. “A mind imbued with truth is a law of harmony.”
As we work with Chapter 5, “Spiritual Attainment Through Prayer,” and with recording 258B, “Treatment—The Correct Letter of Truth,” we can take our cue from Joel, and to the best of our ability, continually practice “intelligent” treatment. Certainly, the current times present many opportunities!