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Posted on 3/1/25:
This copyrighted excerpt is from Recording 46B: 1953 First New York Practitioner Class,” Treatment with the Is.” 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 website or by calling 1-800-922-3195.
Goldsmith Global has permission to provide this material to Goldsmith Global participants for educational and study purposes. Please respect the copyright on this material.
Q: Do you do away with treatment entirely?
This question came the day after a class (46A) in which Joel spoke about healing. He talked about indifference to humanhood and recognition of Christhood. Evidently, the student did not fully understand what Joel was saying and wanted more clarity about the role of treatment.
A: No, no. You are increasing the effectiveness of your treatment. Your treatment originally was a denial. Now, your treatment is the statement or declaration of is. That’s still a treatment. Now, having declared your “IS,” which brings with it naturally the question, Ah, yes, “IS”—but what is?
Now you are right in the midst of your treatment, which, in The Infinite Way writings, is called “a state of receptivity,” listening for that inner unfoldment. Now you’re right in the midst of the treatment, but not the treatment which you are going to give, the treatment which now God is going to give. And now, do you remember how many times I’ve said in the writings that ultimately, you come to a place where you do not give a treatment, where you do not pray, where the treatment is given within you, where God does the praying?
Do you remember those statements that we do not know how to pray—let the Spirit bear witness with my spirit; the Spirit must make intercession for us? That is the point that we are now making clear to you. That is the point that for years I have experienced—that I do not give a treatment. I have known for so many years that no mental activity of mine would heal anybody; otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to say, “I can of my own self do nothing.”
If any mental activity of mine or any thought of mine healed anybody, it would be ludicrous to say I am not doing it. If I am to say my understanding doesn’t heal, and then I turn around and make a lot of statements that I understand, I’m denying myself. But it is literally true that I cannot heal and that I do not know any truth that will heal, because you could take the whole ten books of The Infinite Way and recite them from cover to cover, and you won’t heal anything.
There must be a treatment from within, a prayer from within, that which I call the “word of God,” coming to human consciousness. Now, the word of God is quick, sharp, powerful, and it does not return void. How many times have you given a treatment and watched it return void? A million times. You know it as well as I do. I’ve done the same thing. How many treatments have we given that have not been productive of results? Why? They weren’t the word of God. They were our word; they were the word that we read in a book. They were man’s word. They were concepts of truth.
Now, the word of God is something entirely different. The word of God is something that you receive in your ear. The word of God is something that you receive within your own being. It may come as a statement, a quotation, an assurance. It may come as a feeling. It may just come as a sense of release. But it is the word of God, the presence of God made flesh in you. And when that word of God comes, be assured it does not return void.
Whenever you’ve had an experience of that kind and then have heard later that there was an instantaneous healing, you weren’t surprised. You knew that it must have happened because you could feel it. That was when it really was the word of God, not some word repeated out of a book.
Now, never do you give up treatment. But treatment may eventually come to a place, in some instances, where it only takes one second. In other words, an appearance is presented to you, and you may just quickly realize “is,” and that may be the whole treatment. But in that one word, “is” is encompassed the whole book. On the other hand, you may realize that “is” and then sit in the silence. And you may be there for five, ten, or twenty minutes receiving an unfoldment until the moment comes of complete release, and then you say, “Oh, I’m going to get a good call on that one.”
Now, at no time do we ever dispense with treatment. That’s why I have said, “Please do not call this—The Infinite Way—an absolute teaching or a teaching of the absolute.” I just do not like that term in connection with our work. Why? It isn’t the absolute. There is only one absolute, and that is after you have lost all concepts of truth and stand in the revelation of truth itself. That is absolute.
But we . . . ah, now, we have an absolute truth. The absolute truth is God’s allness, God’s being, but that allness is revealing itself to us sometimes in very relative ways. First place, the very use of words of truth to lift us into a consciousness is a relative activity. It is one you can be assured is not indulged in heaven. Once the heavenly state of consciousness is realized, there is no need for words or statements or reminders of truth. One is then in a constant being of truth. Then it would only be necessary to sit in a chair and let people come and visit you, and they could sit there for a minute, an hour, a week, walk on, and they would be healed. You would be in such an absolute state of being that you would be completely unaware of their presence. That would be the absolute. But the moment you would talk to them about truth, you would again be in the relative.
We in this work have not become so absolute as to get away from treatment, except in this degree: As we live in this attitude of is, as we give up… you see how you’re giving up mental activity there. The minute you say “is,” you can’t think another thought about what is or how is, or how much is. You’ve really shut yourself up the minute you’ve said “is.” Now, as you live in that attitude of is, you never form an opinion about anything or anyone out here. You wait for Spirit to reveal the true picture.
Now because of that, because you’re living in this consciousness, somebody in your city or another city may reach out to you for help. They may sit down and write you a letter or send you a telegram, or they may go to the telephone to phone you and receive their healing before you are consciously aware that they’re reaching out to you. That was a healing in the absolute. They had touched the absolute of your consciousness, and you humanly have not entered the picture. Not even to the extent of saying “is.” Do you see that? There you have the absolute. . . .
Now, we do have those experiences of people who sit down and write us and then write that before the letter could have left the letterbox, the healing had come, or they were made aware of the Presence. And in other cases, people have phoned and received no answer to the phone, and yet a few minutes later, their healing took place. All of these things happen frequently, and they are absolute healings. They are healings in the absolute because it is a touching of the Christhood of our being, and no human factor enters. But once somebody has asked for help and you say “is,” you have entered the picture. Now, the moment you have entered the picture, there must come the release from the Spirit, and then again, you are in the absolute. But for a moment while you were is–ing, you were in the relative.
Let us not give the impression that we do not use treatment. I have had people call my wife on the phone and say, “Can’t I tell you about my trouble? I know your husband won’t do anything about it even if I could reach him.” Well, you see, that’s the wrong impression. I do something about everything and about everybody. Not always the same thing, and it’s true, sometimes it is necessary that I sit for a long, long time before what I have to do is accomplished. But at other times, it comes, you might say, instantaneously.
I have had illuminations, that is, release, or the attainment of realization, from which wonderful things have happened. Unusual things have happened, things not even in the ordinary sense of our healing work. But it was only upon the attainment of that experience, the attainment of that realization. Once I realized the consciousness of the absolute, then the healing took place. But I first had to come to the point of realization. Now, we can call that “treatment.” Even though we think no human thoughts, even if we just sit waiting, and then it comes—that [deep sigh] beautiful sense of release, that peace. That is the attainment of the absolute. And it is in the attainment of the absolute that the miracle takes place.
But you say, “Did you give a treatment?” Well, I would call it a treatment just sitting there waiting for the attainment of that absolute, even if I didn’t have a conscious thought. I would say certainly, I did something about it. I sat there waiting in expectancy; I listened for the still, small voice. I waited for a realization of the presence of God. When it came, I had attained the mind that was in Christ Jesus; I had attained the Mount of Transfiguration; I had attained absolute consciousness. In that consciousness, the error, the appearance is transformed.
So you see, we do continue treatment, but the nature of the treatment differs. And so it is. I doubt very much that any two treatments are ever alike. Even if you take care of a hundred cases a day, you will have a hundred different forms of treatment. None of them will be alike. They may all, in time, start alike . . . No, I doubt even that. I doubt that you’ll ever come to a place where you’ll start every treatment with the word “is,” even though “is” is your state of consciousness. But watch what happens the moment you say “is” and can’t say another word beyond that or think another thought about what “is” is or what its nature is—Oh, you have a treat coming to you, I know.