A: Now try to understand this, because this is fundamental. To begin with, this is a misstatement: “Everything in nature dies—flowers, butterflies, trees, everything.” Definitely, that is not true. Not one of these dies, and no one has ever seen them die or witnessed their death. All you have witnessed is the outer shell being dropped. You have never beheld life dying or dead, nor have you ever witnessed the death of an individual. You have only witnessed the dropping of a shell, the throwing off of an outer coat.
Now, when you look at a tree, you do not see a tree. You see its form, and as many times as the leaves drop off, or the fruit or the flowers, the life remains. In the same way, if you cut off this hand and arm, I remain; my life remains. And if you cut off both arms and both legs, I still remain, and my life remains. And if all the rest of me disappeared, I still remain. You must remember that you have never seen me, and I have never seen you. I have seen some of you in my spiritual work, but only in moments of spiritual realization—never when looking at your form.
Now as I look out from here, I can’t see you. I can see your bodies, but that isn’t you. You look down at your feet right now and ask yourself if those feet are you. Look at your limbs up to your knees and ask yourself if that is you. Look at yourself up to your waist and ask if that is you, and right on up to your neck and then up to the top of your head, and ask yourself, “Is this me, or is all of this mine?”
And then you will understand why you can close your eyes and say the word “I.” I. Was I referring to hands and feet? Was I referring to body at all? Of course not! I was referring to I, myself, and I, myself, am not in this body. The body has been dissected from toenails to the top hair of the head, but nobody has ever found a man or woman inside. They have never found you inside, and they never will, because you aren’t there. Your body is within your consciousness, or you wouldn’t be conscious of it.
But you are not in your body. Otherwise you would be limited; you would be finite; and above all things you’d be uncomfortable. You’d be squeezing an infinite being into a finite body, and it can’t be done. I am not finite; I am not limited; I do not occupy time or space or place, for “I and my Father are one.”2 This one cannot be finitized or limited or restricted or confined within the area of a body.
Then, when you behold the flowers drop off your bushes and the leaves off the trees, you’re not witnessing the death of anything. You are witnessing the casting off of an outer shell, an overcoat, a covering, all of which is going to be renewed. And the reason it is going to be renewed is that the life is there.
So the Master said, “If you destroy this temple, I will raise it up again in three days.”3 He didn’t say, “You would be ruining me.” He didn’t say, “You would be killing me if you destroy this temple.” Oh, no—“If you destroy this body, I will raise it up again in three days.” And so it is that you may cast off your skin as the reptiles do—actually as we do! We are told now that our bodies are renewed about every year; that at the end of a year, we haven’t a single drop of blood in our system that was there at the beginning of the year; that we don’t have a bit of skin on our body that was there at the beginning of the year. In other words, our bodies are renewed practically every year—new blood, new skin, new hair, new nails—everything is renewed about every year, but “we” go on.
So it will be, if ever you witness that which is called “passing on” or “death,” be assured of this: that all that you are witnessing is the discarding of the outer shell, the overcoat, the body, but I go on, and I raise up another body very, very quickly. As a matter of fact, so instantaneously that—as I have witnessed it many times—just less than five minutes after a person passes from their body, they are already clothed in a new body, instantaneously. They are never for a second without that new body. I have witnessed them at their own funeral service standing and smiling and with a body, even three days after passing.
Actually, I wouldn’t even tell you of this experience if I didn’t know many others who have had the same experience. So I need not fear that I’m going mad, or that you may think I am. I say that because I do not tell all of my spiritual experiences—ever—and the reason is that if you, yourself, haven’t had them, you have no way even of believing that they could happen, and even if you did believe it, it would be of no value to you, because it hadn’t happened to you. But in this particular case I can mention it, because so many who have been spiritual healers have witnessed just what I have, and so I know that it’s a very common occurrence to witness it. The experience itself takes place with everyone who dies or passes on. Instantly, within a few moments, they are awake and in their new body.
Therefore, never believe that provision has been made in nature for anything to die, for it doesn’t. But there must be a renewing of form that has been provided for—that we be renewed; that we do not live on yesterday’s manna; that we do not hold onto yesterday’s forms of good; that we should be willing to see our babyhood, our infancy, and our infant bodies pass from us, in order that we may have children’s bodies. We must be willing for children’s bodies to disappear from us, so that we may have adult bodies, mature bodies. We must be willing for this to pass from us in order that we may have a higher form of maturity.
In other words, remember that there is a time of life, as we enter adulthood, where a new function takes place in our life, and that function is parenthood or the possibility or potentiality of it. But remember that it is provided for that another period come into our experience when that possibility and potentiality is taken from us. Why? It is no longer necessary, because we are now entering a higher expression of life, when it is not so important either to indulge physical sensation, or to form new families. Having outgrown that stage, we can now give our full attention to our spiritual development. Everyone must recognize this. Everyone must recognize that provision has been made for change, but not for death. And so, when you witness what the world calls “passing” in nature or with individuals, remember it isn’t so. It is only the form, the shell, the outer skin, that is being laid aside in order that a new form may unfold.
1 Excerpt from Recording #275A: 1959 London Closed Class, “The Nature of the Spiritual Universe.” This excerpt is posted with kind permission from the Estate of Joel Goldsmith, which holds the copy protection on all of Joel’s recorded classes and the copyright on the class transcripts. The full transcript of this recording is available at The Infinite Way Office website or by calling 1-800-922-3195.
2 John 10:30.
3 John 2:19.