A: Now, many of you in metaphysics have been taught that you are a spiritual idea, or that you are the Son of God, or you have been taught that a cat is a spiritual idea, or a dog is a spiritual idea, or flowers are spiritual ideas. And I would like you to know that’s not true. That never was true. A spiritual idea is perfect and eternal in the heavens. A spiritual idea never changes, never lacks, never has a sense of separation from God, never grows old, never dies.
And another thing about a spiritual idea is you can never see it with your eyes. Never. Again, just as you can’t see me, because that “me” is spiritual idea, and you can only see your concept of me, so it is that you can’t see a cat, or a dog, or a flower, or a tree. You can only see the form. The spiritual idea is the entity itself which I am. That’s the spiritual identity, but that which you behold is your concept of that spiritual identity. Do you see that?
You can’t see my hand. You don’t even know what a hand is. This that is here is a hand, but you aren’t seeing it. You are seeing your concept of it, appearing as form. The hand itself is a permanent spiritual idea and never changes, never ages, never dies. It is an instrument of my use, provided for me in the beginning, and it will be with me eternally.
The purpose of our teaching is that when you see a discordant person, thing, or condition, you must not try to change them. Don’t try to manipulate anything in the external but realize that you are not beholding anything but a concept, which in and of itself has no power, has no presence, has no reality. But the reality of what you are witnessing is eternal in the heavens, is perfect. Now in the same way, we teach that even though you see a baby’s body, don’t gloat that you’re seeing something so wonderful because it has seventy more years ahead of it. It may be perfect. It may be harmonious. It may be useful. But that [the baby body] isn’t spiritual either, because the day is coming when you will see it in its opposite.
Now, even as you look at the harmonious body, and the youthful body, and the perfect body, be sure that you remember you are not seeing a spiritual idea; you are seeing your concept of a spiritual idea. Then you will begin to heal, and you will begin to heal quickly. The degree of slowness in healing is this: Healing does not take place because of any mysterious Gods, nor with the help of any mysterious Gods, or any Gods. As far as God is concerned, God is, and God is eternally omnipresent as individual you and me. So as far as God is concerned, there can be no such thing as healing. Healing is an activity of your consciousness, of individual consciousness.
That is why you could go to the Master Christ Jesus and undoubtedly get an instantaneous and wonderful healing. But if you went to his disciples, you might or might not get that instantaneous healing. It might be a long, drawn out one, or you might not get it at all. And so you have the same condition today. You may go to one practitioner today and get no healing and find another one tomorrow and have an instantaneous healing. And the reason is what? Any difference in God? No, the difference is in the consciousness of the practitioner. There are some practitioners who have a wonderful, wonderful consciousness, and there are others who haven’t. And there are others who are just on the way toward acquiring it.
1 This excerpt is from Recording 97A: 1954 Portland Practitioner Class, “Our Real Identity and Oneness.” 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.