A: Now, I and my Father being one, and my Father being Spirit, I am spiritual. And therefore, my body is spiritual, and my body is the temple of God. What I see with my eyes is not my body, but a universal material concept. In other words, again, there’s nothing personal about life. It’s impersonal. And so it is on the human plane that I am not seeing my concept of body, I am seeing the universal concept of body, and more especially the universal concept of material body. That’s what I see with my eyes. And if I were to look out at you with my eyes, I would also see your physical form, but what I would really see is the universal concept of you.
Remember, this is the illusion, because that is not what is out there—what I see with the eye. What is out there is the perfect spiritual temple of God, and that’s what you are tabernacling in. You never lose your physical body, because you haven’t got one. You lose your material concept of body, and then you see face-to-face. When you look in the mirror, now you’re seeing through a glass darkly. When your eyes are closed, and you are high in spiritual consciousness, you are seeing “face-to-face.” You are seeing Him as He is, and you’ll be perfectly satisfied with that likeness.
But remember, you do not see the spiritual form with your eyes. Even if some one of the departed should walk into this room in their ghost-like body, you would still not be seeing their spiritual form. You would still be seeing a material concept, because the ghostly body is just as much a material concept as the material body. It is only when you get to incorporeality—that which is invisible to the eyesight—that you really get to the spiritual temple “not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”2 This is the body which is your indestructible, immortal, and eternal body. You do not see it and never will see it with your eyes. But, every practitioner at some time or other sees it in their treatment work or meditation work.
Every practitioner I have ever known, at least every busy one, has at least once in their life beheld the spiritual body. But for most practitioners who have gone far in spiritual understanding, it is not an uncommon experience. It is a very usual experience to behold spiritual creation, not only as body, but the body of a tree, the body of an ocean, the body of the sky, because what we behold as nature is also not the world of God’s creating. That also is a universal concept of a “star-body” or a “moon-body” or a “sun-body” or a “tree-body.” The reality is incorporeal and invisible, and discernible only through what is called the fourth-dimensional consciousness or Christ-consciousness, and only while in it.
Now I don’t know if there ever has been a human being remain in that state of fourth-dimensional consciousness. Certainly the Master didn’t; certainly Buddha didn’t. I know
nothing about John, and Paul definitely didn’t. So I don’t actually believe that anyone has ever remained in that fourth-dimensional consciousness while on earth. It may be, but certainly I don’t know of any records of it. But almost everyone who has had some measure of spiritual illumination catches a glimpse once in a while. And the higher the individual goes in consciousness, the more apt they are to discern the spiritual body, and at frequent intervals. It is for this reason the Master went away for forty days and forty nights—so that he could be lifted up in consciousness, above the evidence of the senses, above the appearances.
It is for this reason we have the story of the ascension, which is nothing more nor less than rising above the material, visible concepts—rising into the invisible Reality. That is why we have the story of Elijah and Elisha. Elisha wants to wear the mantle of the priest. He wants to be a priest; he wants to wear Elijah’s robe. And Elijah says, “If when I ascend, you see me ascend on a cloud, my mantle will fall upon you.”3 That’s absolutely true. In the moment that you can behold the incorporeal Christ, in that moment the robe of Christhood has fallen upon you. You are now brother or sister to Christ in that moment that you can behold the Christ. Don’t try to do it mentally. You’ll fool yourself. It is by grace.
When Peter saw Christ appearing as Jesus and said, “Thou art the Christ,” the Master answered, “Flesh and blood hath not told you this…”—you didn’t learn this through the five physical senses—“… My Father within you revealed it to you.”4 In other words, “Spiritual discernment revealed my Christhood to you.” And from then on, Peter was a more valuable, and probably a more highly honored, disciple, but not quite enough to prevent him from falling down in the emergency.
But nevertheless, the ability to behold the Christhood of an individual bears witness to the fact that some measure of spiritual discernment has arisen in you. And you can tell whether this is true or not by the degree in which you no longer judge, criticize, condemn, and by the degree in which you can forgive. If it’s difficult for you to forgive; if you’re still in the stage of not realizing, “Father forgive them; they know not what they do;”5 if you’re still bearing resentment, desiring revenge, you still have not attained spiritual discernment, because when you attain spiritual discernment, you will know that regardless of what mistake anyone makes, they’re making it out of ignorance of truth and no other way, and you can’t be mad at them for that any more than you can be mad at a child who gets into trouble not knowing any better. When they’re old enough to know better, then you can get good and mad at them.
But the point is that with spiritual discernment, you can easily see that we are the victims of a mass hypnotism built on what’s supposed to be a very clever statement: “Self-preservation is the first law of nature.” That’s the most horrible statement that was ever coined by anyone at any time. Nothing in all of the world touches that in degradation, because all it means is, “I’m out for me, and who cares about you? To save my life, I’ll take your life. To save my fortune, I’ll take your fortune.” That’s all it means—self-preservation. “I’ll get mine, even at the expense of yours.” That’s why it’s degraded, and that’s why it’s mortal. That’s why it’s human. But with the first touch of spiritual discernment, you can understand the Master when he says, “not an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth,”6—no longer wanting your enemy to be punished. Pray for them. Forgive them.
Now when you have reached this, you have reached spiritual discernment. When you can understand that people are only motivated by the hypnotic suggestion that they have to preserve their own life, they have to preserve their own fortune; then you can say, “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.”
Do you remember that postal card years ago—they sold an awful lot of them—two birds, talking on a tree to each other? One saying to the other, “Why are those people down there so worried, so hurried, so angry?” The other one says, “You know, I don’t think they have a God like we have.” And it is that way, because with spiritual discernment, you know you have a God, and you know you have it closer than breathing, nearer than hands and feet. And so you have the wisdom not to try to get it by human means, by might or by power.
1This excerpt is from Recording 486B: 1962 Los Angeles Special Class, “Immortality Unveiled.” It is posted with kind permission from the Estate of Joel Goldsmith, which holds the copy protection on the recorded classes and the copyright on the transcripts. The full transcript of this recording is available at The Infinite Way Office website or by calling 1-800-922-3195.
2 2 Corinthians 5:1
3 See 2 Kings 2
4 Matthew 16:16-17
5 Luke 23:34
6 Matthew 5:38-39