A: Of course, error doesn’t come [from anything] because error doesn’t exist. Where does two times two is five come from? There isn’t any. No matter how many times it presents itself to you, please know—and until you prove it to yourself, take my word for it—in the whole history of the world there has never been one single two times two is five. Never, never, never. No one has ever discovered anywhere under this blue dome, one single two times two is five. It can’t be found and so, from that standpoint, let me say this to you: Jesus Christ, in his entire ministry, never found a sin or a disease or a death, because every time he came into the presence of an appearance of it, the appearance quickly got up and ran away. It dissolved. It disappeared.
And so I say to you that in the presence of any degree of spiritual consciousness there is no such thing as sin, disease, or death. They never have existed any more than two times two is five existed, and when you see them or experience them, remember you are only seeing or experiencing the same thing you do when you get two times two is five in your checkbook—just a little error of belief. And as you recognize that you’re not dealing with an entity or identity, but rather with a belief, you will find the way to make that thing, which isn’t a thing, disappear.
I might take a few minutes here to caution you about that word “illusion.” In metaphysics we say that the sin or the disease is an illusion, and still, I wish you could know how many letters I receive saying, “You know this illusion still stays with me, and I can’t get rid of it.” You know, all there is to treatment, all there is to healing work, is the discernment that the so-called condition exists as illusion. After that, you don’t do something to it or think something about it or treat it or try to get rid of it. …
Do you know the nature of an illusion? An illusion doesn’t exist out here. You can’t get rid of something out here that has no existence out here. The illusion exists as a mental misperception. Now, let’s look at the car tracks that come together. That’s an illusion, isn’t it? Can you get rid of it? Can you send a gang of workmen out there to move those tracks? Where is the illusion? It is in your thought, and how are you going to get rid of it? Your recognition that it’s an illusion gets rid of it. There is nothing to do after that. Your acceptance of disease as illusion is the treatment. Now don’t try to do something to the illusion!
Even in metaphysics, you will find metaphysicians trying to treat the illusion or get rid of it out there on their bodies. In isn’t on their body. Never has there been a disease in or on the body—never, never, never. It has no existence there. If it ever had, there never would have been a metaphysical healing from the very first day, because nobody that I ever heard of in the metaphysical world has ever tried to cure a disease in the body or on the body, because it isn’t there.
The disease exists as a belief about a body, and it exists only in thought. It’s a misperception of that which is there. That is one reason why, in the message of The Infinite Way, every book that I have written has a long chapter on the nature of error. Why? Not to frighten you about error, not to make a lot of error, but to bring home the real nature of error, which is non-existent, if non-existence can be said to have a real nature.
Don’t you see that there is no disease in the body, and there’s no disease on the body? Where would God be if there was a disease also? What would you think of an infinite God, good, that permitted disease? There is no disease. … That conviction that if there is a God, it is something unknown up on a cloud, and with a lot of praying to it, we’ll get help—that’s atheism, and that atheism constitutes our disease.
The disease is not a condition of body. There is no disease in or on the body. If there is, there is no God, good. You can’t have an infinite God, good, and an infinite power of good, an omnipresence of good, and have disease, can you? It just doesn’t make sense even humanly.
Then what of disease? According to all metaphysical teaching, disease can only exist as a belief, as a temptation, as an appearance, as an illusion. And where can those things be? In belief, in thought; not in the body and not on the body; in thought. What dissolves them? Not using the arm of flesh, not using physical power or mental might, but a reliance on the word of truth dissolves them, the reliance on the Lord God Almighty that fights our battles, that dispels our illusions. “And they rested in the word of Hezekiah.”
If we were to rest in the words of Jesus Christ, whom we take as Lord and Master, if we were to rest in the words of Jesus Christ as the Hebrews rested in the words of Hezekiah, we would find the enemy fighting itself and destroying its own king. We would find the diseases of the flesh destroying themselves, if we would stop the battle.
I know this: Joel can’t heal, but the Lord God almighty in the midst of me can, and if I can open my ears, open my consciousness, so that the presence and power of God can be made visible and manifest, It will open the Red Sea. It will make manna fall from the sky. It will make the sins and the diseases of the body to disappear. Joel can’t, but the presence of God appearing as Joel can. But Joel must get out of the way, let his consciousness be the arena, and let the activity of God do the work. That is done in silence, and that is the major part of treatment. Even if you use the first half that I outlined to you [contemplative meditation], even then your work isn’t done until you have completed the second half—get quiet, rest in the word. Let your consciousness be the arena, but rest, rest, and let the word of God come through.
There is one of Mrs. Eddy’s hymns that says, “I will listen for Thy voice, lest my footsteps stray.” Some of you, perhaps, remember it. “I will listen for Thy voice, lest my footsteps stray.” You see, the moment the voice of God comes in, even if it isn’t a voice, even if it is a sensing of the presence of God, the footsteps can’t stray; the ill health can’t remain; the lack and limitation can’t remain; because you can’t have the presence of God and error. And so, if there is error or discord in your experience, you haven’t a conscious awareness of the presence of God, and there’s only one way in which you’ll get that—silence, silence. You must be still and let the presence of God come through.
1This excerpt is from Recording #610A, 1951 Second Portland Series, “The Arm of Flesh.” 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.