A: It is true that if God is spirit, that there can’t be a material body. But you must remember that all there is to humanhood is material sense. Once you have no material sense, you’re no longer living as a human being. Therefore, even though this body is your spiritual body, you—and I, we, all—are entertaining a physical, finite, material sense of body. And it is for this reason that we continue to call this our physical body or material body, when it really isn’t. It is a spiritual body about which we entertain a material concept.
Now, it is the same with everything else. It is only because of our teaching that we believe that this is supply, that money is supply. Everyone accepts that, and of course the moment they need something, they first think that they must have this [money], and then they can get that. You have to break that in The Infinite Way. You have to break that. This [money] isn’t supply. This is a symbol of supply, and it appears in our experience in proportion as we have supply, which means in proportion as we have the conscious realization of God. That realization of God appears externally as money, or transportation, or land, or investments, or home, or companionship.
So it is that we have a concept of silver and gold and bills being supply, but we have to overcome that because money isn’t supply. God is supply, and when you have attained the realization of the presence of God, you have access to all of the money that you can ever possibly need for any righteous purpose.
So in our work, we are not healers of the body, because the body is spiritual. But we are revelators of the spiritual nature of God and man. This revelation changes our consciousness, and we lose our material concept of the universe in some measure. And then we have a less material sense of body, and eventually it comes to where you use this body like you do your automobile. You just jump into it to get around in, and you jump out of it when you want to.
Remember the Master said, “I can pick up this body or lay it down,” and so can anybody who has attained spiritual consciousness, because we do not live in a body. We are consciousness, and the body is within our consciousness. That is why it is subject unto us, and that is why this body must obey us. This hand cannot steal, only because my consciousness governs it, and there is no theft in my consciousness. And so it is, eventually you will see that the body cannot become sick, because it is embodied in your consciousness, and when you have the consciousness of God as health, the body then can only show forth that which it is, the temple of the living God.
That comes to us by degree; that comes to us gradually as we become aware of the fact that we are not reacting as much. Let me give you an illustration of that, since you are all metaphysicians. Have you not noticed that regardless of what the weather is or how many epidemics fly around, that fewer metaphysicians respond to those ills? Have you not noticed that there are fewer empty seats in a metaphysical church than in an orthodox church in this bad weather or epidemic season? Have you not noticed that the children of metaphysical families have far less absences from school because of illness than the non-metaphysical families’ children? I can give you figures on it.
Now, as you evolve spiritually, you become a law unto your body, unto your home, unto your health, unto your children. I have even taught schoolteachers so that they do not have absences from school for sickness, or at least they have reduced them tremendously, and they do not have students left back at the end of the term for not passing, because there are no such in their class. Why? Your consciousness, once you have attained contact with God, is the law of harmony. This is the secret of healing work.
1This excerpt is from Recording #269, Side 2, from the 1959 San Diego 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 all transcripts. The full transcript of this recording is available at www.joelgoldsmith.com or by calling 1-800-922-3195.