A: No. No, no. You see, that’s coming down to the level of the claim. No, no, I wouldn’t do that. I would stay up with the nature of what God is: “What is God?” Do you see? “What is God?” With this claim, I might, for instance, [make the statement], “There’s no law of disease.” I might make the statement, “There is no lack or limitation of anything.” But then I’d forget it entirely and get right up into the major point, which is, “What is the nature of God?”
You must remember this: From our standpoint we are not physicians. Therefore we’re not ever dealing with specific diseases. Not ever are we dealing with specific diseases. Nor are we trying to exchange a belief of bad health for a belief of good health. What we’re trying to do is realize God. Then, in that realization, it makes no difference what the nature of the claim is. It would disappear.
Now, let me illustrate that for you. Supposing a call came, and the patient didn’t name the disease. Suppose they didn’t know the name of the disease. Let’s suppose they had a diagnosis, and the doctor made a mistake in the name of the disease. What good would it do to be knowing anything about anemia? Do you see what I mean? Yet that wouldn’t prevent the healing, would it? No. So let’s assume that nobody knows anything about the disease anyhow, and begin right with our treatment: “What is the nature of God?” As we dwell on that truth of the nature of God, something does begin to unfold within us that lifts us up and helps us and brings us to a state of realization, and the patient receives their healing, whereas if we keep our treatment down on the nature of the disease itself, all we’re doing then is trying to get rid of a certain disease. You might just as well be in materia medica or mental healing, which has nothing to do with spiritual healing.
Now, another thing comes in there. Is there a condition apart from God? Well then, whatever it is that these people are calling “anemia” must also be a part of God’s being. No use denying it is there. There can’t be God, an infinite God, good, and a disease, can there? No. All right, then, whatever it is that somebody is thinking of as a disease can’t really be disease, so there’s no use treating it as if it were.
Do you remember the illustration in The Infinite Way of the snake and the rope? All right, instead of a snake, over here we have a green stem, and supposing to my bad vision it appears as a snake. Well, what would be the use of my worrying about the snake and knowing the truth about the snake or denying something about the snake, when snake doesn’t even enter the picture? The thing I would have to do would be to begin to know the truth of what is there, not anything about what isn’t there.
Well now, anemia is never any place, is it? So what’s the use of bothering about it? Let’s find out what is there, okay? And one thing we know is there—Omnipresence makes it absolutely assured that God is there, and so we dwell on that. You see, that is where The Infinite Way differs from most of the metaphysical teachings on treatment, in that we never touch the person, the name of the person, the disease, or the name of the disease in our treatment. Our treatment begins with the word “God,” ends with the word “God,” and stays in “God.” It never takes in the name of a human being. It never takes in the name of their disease. It never takes in their condition. It stays right up here always in the realm of God. Do you see?
Well then, how do they [the patient] get the benefit of it? They get the benefit of it because of their contact, like the woman who came through the throng and touched the hem of the robe. Jesus didn’t know she was there. How about the centurion’s servant? He didn’t know that help was asked for him, but he got the benefit of it. Why? The centurion’s servant was in the centurion’s consciousness, and the centurion brought himself to the Master’s consciousness. That’s the whole thing. So it is.
You bring your cat or your dog or your bird to me. They don’t know you’re asking metaphysical help. Do you see? They don’t know anything about it, but they’re going to get it. Not only are they going to get it, but here, you can watch this. It’s the most wonderful thing in the world to watch. If you have an animal or pet at home, and you ask me for help—I’ve never been in your home and I’ve never seen that pet—and I help it, let me come into your home and that pet is going to jump right up on my shoulder or my lap. They’re not going to leave me. They’re going to keep rubbing and rubbing and rubbing. They know that they’ve been helped, and they know who did it. They may never have seen me before. I’ve had this happen now—for twenty-odd years I’ve been watching this, experimenting with it. There isn’t a cat or a dog or a bird that doesn’t know when they receive a treatment, and they know who it comes from, even if they’ve never met them, so that when they do meet them, they rush right up to them and greet them like a long lost friend.
[This can be explained] by the mere fact that we are all united. There is only one Consciousness. We are all united in that Consciousness, and the only thing that keeps human beings from [realizing] that is their reasoning mind. If human beings didn’t depend so much on their reasoning mind, they also would have the same thing [as the animals]. In other words, there are people who are enough above the reasoning mind that they instantly know when they’re in the presence of spiritual consciousness. Other people don’t any more recognize a Jesus Christ than they would recognize a tramp on the street. Do you see? That’s because they have too much here [head] and not enough here [heart]. But the people who are sensitive, who are spiritually developed—bring them into the presence of a spiritually developed person and it wouldn’t make any difference if they’re out in their fishing clothes. They would be recognized. Do you see? And so it is.
An animal hasn’t so much of that reasoning mind, that conscious-thinking mind, and so they are receptive. That’s why they and children are more receptive to treatment than adults. A child is very simple to heal. So is an animal. But that is because they are more in that pure consciousness than they are in human consciousness.
So our treatment stays up there in God continuously, and it never, never touches the name of a person, or the name of a disease, or any of the symptoms of a disease. It never takes them into consideration.
1This excerpt is from Recording 630B: 1954 Kansas City Special Class, “Questions and Answers.” 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 from The Infinite Way Office website or by calling 1-800-922-3195.