Recording 124B, “Reality Experienced,” was not used as source material for any book. This recording is no longer posted on this website. If you subscribe to the Joel Goldsmith Streaming Service, you can listen to it there. To purchase the recording or the transcript from The Infinite Way Office, click/tap here.
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Understanding the Lesson
Joel has said that we will never experience God through the mind. However, he also says that if we want to advance spiritually, we must first understand the “letter of truth.” In that spirit of understanding the letter of truth, it can be helpful to check your understanding of this lesson with these questions:
Contemplative Practice
Joel tells us that there is no kind of bodily exercise that will help one attain the consciousness of Reality, nor is there any mental exercise that will help one attain it. Yet, he says, by virtue of turning the mind frequently in thought to the idea of Reality, eventually Reality breaks through, and probably by contemplating the invisible and intangible, the soul faculty is awakened.
“Now, let us think of the word ‘Reality’ as meaning this infinite, invisible substance, presence, power or law. Let us not try to know It, but rather to experience It. So that as we sit in meditation, and begin with the contemplation of Reality, of the invisible, contemplate within your own mind, think of the fact that out of nothingness—well, we’ll go back to vaudeville for a little while, for a minute anyhow, and ask the question: ‘Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?’ . . . As you contemplate that, and contemplate, finally you’ll come to an absolute place of stillness where you’ll say there is no answer, and then in that very split second the answer will appear, and you’ll see how all things spring out of nothingness.
“While you are contemplating this Invisibility, this unseen Reality appearing as form, while you’re busying yourself right up here gently with that contemplation, way, way in the back of you, you will be creating a vacuum of personal sense, and all of a sudden, in a moment that ye know not, and in the moment when ye think not, that Reality will announce Itself, reveal Itself, and again you will know It by the experience and by Its effects, but even then you will not know It as of Itself. . . . The attainment of the consciousness of Reality dispels any form of illusion.”
Bible Quotations
For those who enjoy working with Scripture, these quotations relate to this lesson and can serve as the basis for contemplation. Other relevant verses from Scripture may come to you as you contemplate.
1 Corinthians 13:12
“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” (King James Version)
“At present we are men looking at puzzling reflections in a mirror. The time will come when we shall see reality whole and face to face! At present all I know is a little fraction of the truth, but the time will come when I shall know it as fully as God now knows me!” (J.B. Phillips)
Psalm 17:15
“As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.” (King James Version)
“Because I am righteous, I will see you. When I awake, I will see you face to face and be satisfied.” (New Living Translation)
Genesis 1: 11-12
(Joel often translates these verses from Genesis as “The crops were in the ground before the seed was planted.”)
“And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.” (King James Version)
“Then God said, ‘Let the land sprout with vegetation—every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came.’ And that is what happened. The land produced vegetation—all sorts of seed-bearing plants, and trees with seed-bearing fruit. Their seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.” (New Living Translation)
John 5:30-31
“I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.” (King James Version)
“I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will. If I were to testify on my own behalf, my testimony would not be valid.” (New Living Translation)
Recommended Reading for the Study Program
Please note that this recommended reading list is for the entire study program, not just for this one session.
We recognize that each of us has a different collection of books, so in this recommended reading list, we have chosen chapters from a wide range of the books. Most likely, there will be books on this list that are in your own library.
Joel emphasizes that we will not come to know Reality through mental activity, and just reading is of itself a mental activity. So it is probably wise to refrain from running a marathon through all the recommended reading. We suggest that you review the list and let your inner Master draw you to one chapter. Read that chapter slowly and mindfully. Take the time to contemplate any passages that stand out for you. Absorb any new insights or revelations that come. Then, if you are moved to do so, take another chapter.
A Parenthesis in Eternity
Chapter 10, “Reality and Illusion”
Conscious Union with God
Chapter 1, “The Basis of Spiritual Healing” (Since you can read the first chapter of any book at the Acropolis / Joel Goldsmith Books website, you can read this chapter online free here.)
Chapter 4, “The Nature of Error”
Consciousness in Transition
Chapter 5, “The Nature of Error”
Consciousness Is What I Am
Chapter 10, “The Consciousness of the Truth Is the Healer”
God, the Substance of All Form
Chapter 4, “Fulfillment of Consciousness”
Chapter 8, “The Universal and Impersonal Nature of Truth and Error”
Chapter 11, “States and Stages of Consciousness”
I Stand on Holy Ground
Chapter 5, “Nothing Takes Place Outside Consciousness”
Living Now
Chapter 5, “God Endowed Dominion”
Man Was Not Born to Cry
Chapter 8, “Rising Above ‘This World”
Realization of Oneness
Chapter 3, “Get Thee Hence, Satan”
Chapter 4, “No And”
Spiritual Discernment
Chapter 10, “Rejecting Appearances and Concepts”
Chapter 8, “Mind Imbued with Truth”
Chapter 4, “Immortality Unveiled”
Spiritual Interpretation of Scripture
“Spiritual Development”
“Treatment”
The Art of Spiritual Healing
Chapter 4, “The Language of Spiritual Healing”
Chapter 8, “Treatment Is a Realization of Omnipresence”
The Art of Spiritual Living
Chapter 7, “Consciously Knowing the Truth”
The Heart of Mysticism: 1957 Letters
Chapter 10, “Bear Witness”
The Infinite Way
”Spiritual Illumination”
“Our Real Existence”
“The New Horizon”
The Journey Back to the Father’s House
Chapter 8, “Special Lesson on Healing Work”
Chapter 9, “The Spiritual Kingdom Made Tangible”
The Master Speaks
Chapter 13, “Individual Consciousness”
Chapter 2, “Reality of Spirit”
The World Is New
Chapter 19, “God, the Omnipresent Reality”
If your library is limited at the present time, and you would like to have access to all the Infinite Way books during this study program, you might want to subscribe to the Virtual Library offered by JoelGoldsmithBooks.com for the duration of the program. You can sample the service for two weeks free, and then if you choose, you can subscribe for $9.99 per month. Click/tap here for more information.
Quote from Joel to Ponder
From God, the Substance of All Form: Chapter 4, “Fulfillment of Consciousness”:
“We have said that God is the substance of all form, that God is the reality of all form, the substance and reality of all effect. Are we then to understand God as the substance of the body, trees, flowers, sun, moon, stars, and all that we cognize with the material senses? No, this is a spiritual universe. It is true that God is the substance of all form: God is the substance of your very body and of all creation; but remember, when I see your body or when I see the trees or flowers, I am not seeing God’s creation – I am not seeing the spiritual universe – I am seeing only a finite material concept of it. This concept is referred to as the Adam-dream, the illusion, the mesmeric picture, that which Jesus referred to when he said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world.’
“This does not mean that there are two universes, the real and the unreal, or that there is a real body and an unreal one. It means that the only universe there is, is the real universe, and the only body there is, is the real body, but what I am seeing is my concept of them. Therefore, the only unreality about them is in my misperception of them, in my false concept of them. When you look at any person, you are not seeing what God created: You cannot see that with your eyes; you are seeing only your concept or the world’s concept of God’s creation.”