A: Well now, why stop with just those anxieties? Why not about the anxieties of the atomic bomb, the anxieties of Russia, the anxieties of the next flu epidemic, the anxieties of the next polio epidemic, because I’d rather speak of all of those fears rather than one. And indeed, I can give you something with which to answer those fears. Indeed, I can. I have been giving classes on this subject for a long, long time.
The answer is this: Is temporal power a power? Is material force power? Is mental force power? Is atomic force power? Is there any power in effect? And the answer is, in human sense, yes. That’s why the world is in fear. The remedy, the antidote, that which we bring to bear when we’re called on to do healing work, is that material force is not power; mental force is not power; atomic force is not power. There is only one power, and I am that power, or [in other words], that power is embodied in the I AM which I am.
The kingdom of God is within me. Therefore, all power is within me. That doesn’t leave room for there to be any power in infection, in contagion, in epidemic, in hurricanes or volcanoes. That doesn’t leave any power in atomic force. That doesn’t leave any power in radioactivity. In fact, it doesn’t leave any power in effect. It leaves power in Cause.
Now, again we go back to the relative situation. In the relative, as practitioners, we are faced every single day of our lives with infectious diseases, contagious diseases, with epidemics. We’re faced every single day with capitol labor troubles. We’re faced every single day with the threat of Russia, the threat of dictatorship, the threat of communism, the threat of atomic energy. And when we go into a sick room, we have only the armor of God. We do not have the world’s weapons. We cannot take a sword with us because our teacher has told us, “Put up thy sword. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.”2 And so, when we go into a sick room, we cannot go in with alcohol to keep our hands clean. We cannot go in with disinfectant to keep germs out. We cannot go in with medicines and surgery. We have to go in the way David went to Goliath—with a little pebble of nothingness. We have to go in with a stone carved out of the side of a mountain without hands—spiritual power, which means no power. No power—the recognition that there is no power in effect; there is no power in temporal powers.
Don’t forget this. Many metaphysicians have made themselves look foolish going around saying to human beings that disease isn’t power, and accident isn’t power, and war isn’t power. You’re not supposed to use the language of spirit, the language of spiritual discernment, with those who have no awareness of what you’re talking about.
Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” Don’t you think Jesus knew? But he didn’t answer. How can you explain to a Pilate that I am truth? And how do you think it’s going to sound to a doctor to have you say, “Oh, I don’t believe in the power of disease”? He’d be justified in saying, “Let me take you down to my hospital and around to the cemetery.” And you’d have no answer, because on his level of thought, he’s absolutely right.
You are supposed to have yourself clad in the armor of spirit, which is the realization of truth. Then, when you go into those things that are nonpower spiritually but are so frightening to man whose breath is in his nostril, you just walk in there silently—not boastfully, not bragging. You walk in silently and secretly and say, “Let me pray.” Inwardly you’re saying, “I’m really not going to pray at all.” But prayer is the language of the people outside, and so you’ll use that language. And when you sit there in the silence, you do pray, but your prayer would never be recognized by those around you, because your prayer is a “Thank you, Father, that I am the only power operating in this room. I am the only power functioning in this individual, in their soul or mind or body. I, the spirit of God, is the only presence and the only power, and beside Me there is no other presence, and there is no other power.” And then, having reminded yourself of that, you sit quietly, and you feel a transcendental presence or power.
Now, you can’t explain that to the man in the street. The man in the street probably thinks that your statements did the healing work, or something that you know in your mind, or something that you read in a book. You know right well that nothing that you ever learned in a book would ever heal anybody. You know better than that. You know that knowledge isn’t spiritual power. You have to sit there, having assured yourself of your basic truths, namely, one power, and that power the power of Cause; reminding yourself of the nonpower of anything that exists as effect, the nonpower of anything that has form, the nonpower of the creature.
Shall I fear the creature more than I trust the Creator? Why should I fear the creature when I know the Creator? And so, you have no fear of form, even if it is claimed to be leprosy. You have no fear of form if it’s claimed to be blindness or deafness. Your faith and your reliance are in the Invisible, and then you sit, and you wait, and you feel the Spirit within you. You feel a divine Presence; you feel a transcendental something that you can never describe, something that is indefinable. And when you feel that, the spirit of God has moved, and then whatever it is that exists in the realm of—call it error—it dissolves; it disappears; and harmony is made evident.
1This excerpt is from Recording 222A, 1958 New York Closed Class, “Soul—Mind—Body.” 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 www.joelgoldsmith.com or by calling 1-800-922-3195.
2 Matthew 26:52