Joel Goldsmith (1892 - 1964) and "The Infinite Way" spiritual path

When Eckhart Tolle appeared on the Oprah show, someone asked him for suggestions for further study. Tolle recommended Joel Goldsmith's "Infinite Way" teaching.

There is a weekly Infinite Way study group at the Escondido Philosophical Library. The group listens to "The Infinite Way" tapes each week with an ensuing discussion. The monthly calendar announcement goes like this:

Hear Joel's direct teaching on mysticism, meditation and principles. Learn how to attain conscious union with God.

I love all the New Thought teachers. When I want to strengthen my connection with God, Source, the One, however, I pick up one of Joel's books and read. He is one of the most passionate mystical writers I have read and easily moves into a meditation on each principle he is explaining throughout each book. In his meditations, it is the infinite "I" speaking. To read his meditations is to join him in union with the One.

There are two things I read about Joel early in my study of "Science of Mind" that has had a profound effect upon my practice. One is the importance of daily meditation - communing with the Presence of God. The other is dropping whatever you are doing and immediately treating/ praying when a request is received. I have been doing both ever since and discovered, not surprisingly, that it has not only strengthened my practice but has strengthened my faith and deepened my in-sight into the unity of all things in God. (As I type this, the words "one nation under God indivisible" echo in my mind. How often have I spoken these words without regarding the profound meaning underneath them!)

Toward the end of my practitioner study, I was again reading Joel and came upon another of his practices that really resonated with me. He believed that anyone with a sincere desire to know the Truth and be lifted into wholeness would experience a healing as a result of his treatment. Anyone! It did not have to be the person who came to him requesting treatment; it did not have to be someone he knew or who knew him. Anyone who was open for it would be healed! With this belief, Joel did a treatment every day at 4 pm. He was a dedicated practitioner and teacher who worked to deepen his understanding, his connection and his skill his entire life. He was a sought after teacher then and is a sought after teacher now through his still-popular books, audios and his spiritual path, "The Infinite Way."

Joel came to the teaching early as a result of his father's healing from a "terminal illness" through Christian Science treatment. He was so moved by this demonstration that he studied and soon became one of the best practitioners in the Christian Science church. He eventually left the church and went on to develop and teach "The Infinite Way."

What is The Infinite Way®?
Below is the definition on the official Joel Goldsmith website, http://joelgoldsmith.com/:

"The Infinite Way is the name of the first book published by Joel S. Goldsmith. While he continued to write books, Mr. Goldsmith also carried on with his healing and practitioner work, and conducted lecture classes. Subsequently, Joel received many more requests to lecture across the country and in many parts of the world. Early on, students came to Joel and asked if he would audio record his lectures. In 1951, Joel established an office and called it ‘The Infinite Way’, and therein deposited all of his original writings and book manuscripts, and all of his original recordings. Students refer to Joel's work as The Infinite Way message. It is a blueprint for the attainment of God realization.

The Infinite Way message was brought to this world through the spiritual revelations of Joel S. Goldsmith. It is a mystical message by which students are taught spiritual Principles to live by and practice for God-realization and harmonious living. Joel’s healing and practitioner work was a demonstration of the spiritual Principles of this message. He traveled the world and lectured extensively by invitation. Joel did not advertise. The Infinite Way remains a world-recognized name by the sheer momentum of its spiritual application.

This message is an individual experience. We have thousands of stories from students who found this message in a wonderfully timely and mystical way. Infinite Way students are all around the world. One tenet of The Infinite Way instructs us to seek God aright in the secret, sacred silence of our inner Kingdom. There are many of us in the world, yet we are not a congregation. Our bond comes from the shared desire to seek God aright, to live in this world harmoniously, but not be subject to it.

The Infinite Way remains the same office that Joel S. Goldsmith established in his lifetime, and where all of his original materials continue to be preserved and maintained. Interested students are invited to contact us for more information on The Infinite Way materials."

On the same site, you will find Joel's principles of meditation: http://www.joelgoldsmith.com/meditation.html.

Additionally, Joel had students study 132 "wisdoms," one per day. Here are 4 examples:

• Spiritual Truth is not true about humanhood, but about Spirit and Its Universe.
• Humanhood is a state of mesmerism and only as the illusion breaks is one’s life in God.
• Attainment comes only as one is loosed from all concepts of Truth and this comes only by Grace.
• Prayer is not an activity of the human mind.

For more details about Joel's background or to order his books, go to http://joelgoldsmith.com/, http://www.christianscience.org/goldsmith.html or http://joelgoldsmith.wwwhubs.com/. You can also order his books through http://www.devorss.com/, the largest New Thought book publisher. Although amazon.com and other online booksellers also offer his books for sale, many also carry a line of his books edited by bnpublishing which took the liberty of changing and deleting some of his key material. Make sure the books you purchase are published by deVorss.

"The Infinite Way" and "A Course in Miracles"
In my research for sources selling Goldsmith's books, I found this reader's review of THE INFINITE WAY taken off of amazon.com and referencing Ken Wapnick's site for A COURSE IN MIRACLES students:

[beginning of review]
"I consider A COURSE IN MIRACLES to be a continuation of Joel S Goldsmith's THE INFINITE WAY (I am using this as a term for his entire teaching, not just this book). Joel died just months before Helen Schucman began scribing ACIM. I like to think of Joel helping out in some way with A COURSE IN MIRACLES on the other side of the veil. In ACIM, the principles of the Infinite Way are further developed and given depth and sophistication. Of course, this is all my humble opinion.

That said, I got this off of facim.org: [Wapnik's site]
Q #783: I notice many similarities between A Course in Miracles and The Infinite Way teachings of Joel S. Goldsmith. Would you please comment on this?

[Ken Wapnik's reply:]
A: "Because all authentic spiritual teachings are leading in the same direction -- towards an experience of oneness which transcends the false self, the finite ego -- it is very likely that similarities and parallels in content can often be identified between paths. Certainly that can be said for the teachings of Joel S. Goldsmith and A Course in Miracles . Both, for example speak of our real existence as spirit, that the material world is an illusion and the body is merely an idea that expresses what is in the mind, that error or sickness is in the mind and not in the body, and that healing is the result of correcting a false belief in the mind.

And yet there are differences. For example, Joel Goldsmith speaks of God as Consciousness expressing itself. The Course, in contrast, speaks of consciousness as "the first split introduced into the mind after the separation" (T.3.IV.2:1) . The Holy Spirit, the Voice for God in the dream according to the Course, is more nearly equivalent to the concept of Consciousness that Goldsmith refers to in his teachings. In addition, Goldsmith speaks of God as the life, mind, body, and substance of individual being, and of the body as existing as the idea of God. And therefore, we will never be without conscious awareness of the body, nor without the body. The Course, in contrast, views the body as the embodiment of the ego's wish that the separation be real (W.pI.72.2:1,2,3) , and teaches that the body nevertheless can be give a different purpose, that of healing and forgiveness, under the Holy Spirit's guidance. The body then will simply disappear from the mind once its usefulness to the Holy Spirit for healing is complete. And the emphasis of the Course, therefore, on looking at the ego and its thoughts of hatred and attack and guilt, is simply not reflected in Goldsmith's approach.

This is not to say that one is right and the other is wrong -- they are merely different. For as Jesus reminds us near the end of the Course, "A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary. It is this experience toward which the course is directed" (C.in.2:5,6) . To the extent that both teachings lead us to release all of our preconceptions about how things should be, what our physical and emotional lives should be like, and any effort to control the external to achieve our personal goals, they are both fostering a nonjudgmental acceptance, which is what the Course means by forgiveness. And so both would be leading us toward the same universal experience.

Although addressed to the issue of different teachings on the Course itself, Question #48 provides a helpful perspective on thinking about the relationship of the Course to other spiritual paths, such as Goldsmith's." [end of Wapnik's response]

"The Infinite Way does not have the psychological component of ACIM, yet what it does have is the love of a man whose very presence was a blessing upon this planet.

I came back to Joel's work after being diagnosed with a serious illness and cannot even begin to express in words the healing (that is a rising in consciouness) I am still experiencing, much less the deepening of my work with A Course in Miracles. "
[end of review]

Future direction for MV Science of Mind and New Thought Group:
Much enthusiasm was generated in the discussion about The Infinite Way and its relevance to Christian Science, New Thought and A Course in Miracles, practices familiar to many group members. The group decided that "The Infinite Way" would be the next book study to tackle after we complete "Science of Mind." (All decisions should be so easy!)

Eric Butterworth, a "Twentieth Century Emerson"

Bio exerpted from www.ericbutterworth.com

Eric Butterworth was Senior Minister of The Unity Center of New York City from 1961 to 2003. The author of 16 best-selling books on metaphysical spirituality, a gifted theologian, philosopher, and lecturer, Eric was a highly respected New Age pioneer and innovator of New Thought, whose life was dedicated to helping people to help themselves.

Eric has often been referred to as a "Twentieth Century Emerson." His teaching was focused on the Divinity of all people, and his desire was that everyone would know their Oneness with God.

A visionary and an innovator, he originated the Spiritual Therapy Workshops, which he conducted for over 35 years. As a pioneer radio broadcaster, he began his daily messages, which at times went around the world, with the words: "You can change your life by altering your thoughts." His was a gentle voice that beautifully articulated a powerful message, which inspired hundreds of thousands of people for over fifty years. These messages are still available daily at http://www.ericbutterworth.com/.

Born in Winnipeg, Canada in 1916, Eric attended Fresno State University and Capital University in Ohio, where he studied music. He began training for the ministry at Unity Village in Missouri during WW II. He left to join the army and, as a lieutenant in the Medical Corps, trained medical personnel and also served as chaplain and counselor. After the war, he returned to his ministerial studies and graduated from Unity Ministerial School.

A scholar and educator, Eric established three powerful Unity ministries. The first was in Pittsburgh. He then moved to Detroit, where his teaching resulted in the building of the Detroit Unity Temple, the largest Unity church at that time, where more than 2,000 people attended his Sunday Services each week. While in Detroit, he authored his first book, Unity: A Quest for Truth. In 1961, Eric began his ministry in New York City. He lectured every Sunday at Carnegie Hall, then Town Hall, and since 1976, Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center, where the weekly attendance grew to several thousand.

His devotees include people from all walks and stations of life, all of whom state that his teachings helped to change their lives. Oprah Winfrey says of his classic book, Discover the Power Within You, “This book changed my perspective on life and religion.” And, it is a favorite in her personal library. Dr. Maya Angelou says of Eric: "He has been, is now, and shall forever be my teacher." The unique spiritual bond that existed between Eric and Maya is evident to all who know them.

Eric was 86 years old but was always fond of saying: "My age is none of my business," and "I am as old as God and as young as the morning."

My Gift to the World by Eric Butterworth
I am mindful of the great need to give of myself to the world in gratitude for a life of many blessings.

I give you a new spirit of freedom, not so much the freedom to do what you want but the freedom to become what you must.

I give you a spirit of opulence, freedom from the fear of poverty, and the courage to lay claim to your Divine Inheritance of the Kingdom of God.

I give you the key to the prison doors of fear and worry, the padded cells of guilt and unforgiveness, and the dark dungeons of despair and futility.

I give you the blessing of healing and the realization that you can never be less than whole, and the perception to see yourself as God sees you: whole and perfect...now.

I give you the knowledge of how to live forever, not so much in length of years but in depth of livingness.

I give you the inexhaustible resource of love, and the ability to know its nature and to rightly use its energies. I grant to you the discipline to live continuously in the consciousness of love, which will heal all your hurts, harmonize all your relationships, satisfy every longing of your heart, and fill your life with abounding good.

I give you the contagious influence of joy, with which you may infect all persons with a new dimension of abundant living.

I give you "the peace that passes all understanding." Out of this will dawn the awareness that world peace begins within the individual. With this universal discovery, wars and rumors of war will fade from the memory of humankind, and people will get on with the business of living and loving and growing.

Eric Butterworth, Involution and Evolution

Now here is a demonstration. As we finished yesterday evening's discussion, I made a mental note to introduce the idea of involution and evolution next week. Just now I went to read the daily topic on the Eric Butterworth website and lo! there was our topic.

Eric Butterworth was a Unity minister in NYC at the same time Raymond Charles Barker headed up the Church of Religious Science there. They spoke down the hall from each other each Sunday at the Lincoln Center. What a time that must have been. Butterworth is the author of the New Thought classic, "Spiritual Economics," which we will read in our Spiritual Economics class in the fall. I will include his bio in the next post. Here is his article:

Involution and Evolution
Thoughtful Bible students have always wondered about the paradox in the first two chapters of Genesis. The first chapter gives a wonderfully concise outline of the Creative Process of the Universe, and how It created our world and all that is in it. We read, and I quote: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion….So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.…And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” [Genesis 1:26, 27, & 31] The heavens and the earth were finished, and God rested. [Genesis 2:3]

This appears to be fairly comprehensive and final, and yet, it says in the second chapter [of Genesis], “And there was no man to till the ground.” [Genesis 2:5] “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living Soul [Being].” [Genesis 2:7] So, now we are told there was not one Creation, but two. One of them was instantaneous; the other proceeded through many millions of years. But how can these two creations be reconciled? You see, the “first creation” was in God Mind; it was what we call the “Involutionary Creation.” The second was the unfolding outworking of this idea through the “Evolutionary Creative Process.” These two need not be, and should not be, at odds. In the first chapter of Genesis [involution], the Creative Mind is pictured at work. It is Mind jelling Itself into a concept, a plan. There is a record of how Mind formulates Its ideas. Evolution is the gradual outworking, or outforming, or achievment of that plan.

As far back as 1930, Sir James Jeans, the eminent scientist, said, and I quote: “Thirty years ago, we thought, or assumed, that we were heading toward an ultimate reality of a mechanistic universe, a fortuitous jumble of atoms, destined to perform meaningless dances for a time, under the action of blind, purposeless forces, and then fall back to become a dead world. Today there is a wide measure of agreement [among scientists] that the stream of knowledge is heading toward a non-mechanical reality, with the universe beginning to look more and more like a great thought than a great machine.” A tremendous concept: “looking more like a great thought than a great machine”

Just as a man must have an ideal before he can bring it into manifestation, so it is with God’s Creation. Only after a man has built thought pictures of the house, can he follow this with the actual construction of the house that becomes a home. So, in the first chapter of Genesis, God’s creation of man is the “inner” or the “ideal” creation, made in the Image-Likeness of God, which He pronounces as “very good.” [Genesis 1:31] This was, and is, the direct offspring of the Divine Mind—God’s idea of a Perfect Man, begotten only of God, and not of human invention, evolution, environment, or heredity. This is the “Christ,” the “I AM.” No matter where a person may find himself in evolution, he should never forget that in involution he is a Perfect Being, formed in the Mind of God, and this Divine Pattern is always present at the heart and root of him. This is the pattern. This is the plan. It is his—the perfect image of himself as God sees him.

Then, God rested…and the plan began to unfold. And we quote: “And the Lord God created man out of the dust of the ground.….” [Genesis 2:7] “…and called their [his] name Adam.” [Genesis 5:2] “Called their [his] name Adam.” In a sense, Adam was the original “atom” from which all things have come. In its intended form, Adam is not a proper name at all. It simply means “man,” in a generic sense. All men were formed from the “dust of the ground.” Now, if this seems to be a miracle, your life or mine is no less a miracle, for, chemically, our bodies are created from “the [literal] dust of the ground.” All the elements of the sustaining food we eat come from the soil. So man is created from “the dust of the ground.”

To argue about the historical value of Genesis is to totally miss the point—to completely misunderstand what the Scripture is all about. To see why it was so detailed, we must understand the Oriental idiom and accept the metaphor. If you drop a stone to the ground, it falls quickly and surely. Stated technically and scientifically, the stone and the world are drawn together by a force proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. If you state this same proposition Biblically, it is simply that God puts the stone and the world together. Both explanations are valid, but neither of them is quite adequate to explain the Whole Person. The physical body is in a constant process of change and growth and renewal. Out of “the dust of the ground,” we are constantly taking into ourselves the means by which the cells and the functions of the body may be completely renewed, so that every few years you have an entirely different body—with a new heart, new lungs, new tissues. Yet, we are always the same persons, because we are more than our bodies…there is that of us that transcends the body.

Another metaphor, this time from ancient Greece, says, “The water changes, but the river remains the same.” We care nothing of the immediate atoms of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen that make up our bodies at this particular moment. Let them go, let them move on like waters in the stream, because we can get more [of them] out of the dust; we can assimilate more than we need. The Life of us—the Truth of the body of us—is always more than the outer manifestation. There is that of you which is transcendent to the physical part of you.
It is wrong to say that you have a Soul. You don’t have a Soul. You are a Soul. You have a body. With this in mind, we must recognize the two important phases of being: “God’s Man” and “Adam’s man.” God’s Man is the Ideal Creation—the involutionary creation, your potential as the complete Image and Likeness of God. On the other hand, Adam’s man is in a constant state of becoming. Man must lift up his thought to the realization of his Divine Identity, so that he can begin to form the Body Imperishable—the “House…Eternal in the Heavens.” [2 Corinthians 5:1] You see, I am not my body; I am that which uses my body. I am not my emotions; I am that which controls my emotions. I am not my thoughts; I am that which directs my thoughts. Essentially, I am a Spiritual Being.

This is a great realization that can help us, in many ways, to achieve self-mastery. If you are trying to overcome something, and yet, you have a strong compulsion to eat or to drink or to smoke, you say, “But, I need a cigarette.” The fact is, you don’t need a cigarette. Your body needs a cigarette…but you are more than your body. You say, “But, I’m hungry.” You are not hungry, your body is hungry…and there is that of you that is more than your body. As you come to understand this, you begin to recognize that, even in terms of the emotions. You say, “I’m emotional.” But you are not emotional. You are Spirit, you are transcendent to the emotions. So, when you are jealous, you can say, “I’m not jealous. My emotions are jealous, and I’m experiencing jealous thoughts. But there is that of me that transcends my emotions.” This enables you to gain tremendous perspective, by which you can begin to assert yourself in self-mastery.

So in this “evolution,” man has come a long way, and his progress has been made possible by the peculiar forces of his curiosity and his discontent. Man is restless. He is ever searching, reaching, questioning, yearning, otherwise he would still be living in caves. There is something of you that is fulfilling the “Promethean Urge”—this tremendous drive, the up-searching something, which is constantly causing you to lift up, to rise up, to climb up to the heights of your own Divine Potential.

We stand, today, at a point that appears to be the peak of achievement. Looking backward, we can see how far we have come, giving us confidence in our possibilities. Looking ahead, we can realize that there is so much more within us—that “I am more than this.” Remember the story of the minister who patted the little boy on the head, and said, “Sonny boy, who made you?” The little boy looked up, disgustedly, and said, “Well, to tell you the truth, sir, I ain’t done yet.” This is true of you. You’re not done yet. The Apostle Paul says, “Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” [1 John 3:2, RSV] This has been tremendously misunderstood. The words, “when He appears,” do not mean, “when Jesus appears.” Paul is talking about when we become cognizant of that “Involuted Self,” the God-Man, the I AM Self of you—the image-likeness of God, which is the Divine Pattern within you. When this appears, when you suddenly get it into your consciousness, when you get to the realization, “Ah, now I see! Now I know myself,” then you shall be like that in us that is created in His Likeness. Then we shall see the Divine Potential in ourselves as it really is.

This, then, is our task. There is no limit to how far we can go. Physically, we may be made out of “the dust of the ground,” we may be “flesh and blood” and there may be that of us which is vulnerable to physical disease, but eternally, there is hidden within us—in the innermost self of us—that little spark of Celestial Fire, which is our privilege and our responsibility to bring forth. The basis for Spiritual Healing, and of all philosophies based on the potential for a man to change, is right in this concept. Man is created as a Perfect Idea in God Mind; that is the involutionary creation. But, in the evolutionary creation, man is in the long quest to realize who and what he is, and as Paul says, “…it is not yet made manifest what we shall.” [1 John 3:2, ASV]

© Eric Butterworth

Dr. Emmet Fox: Minister, Author, Teacher, Healer, Mystic

A friend just emailed this to me and I thought I would share it. Emmet Fox is a well known healer and early New Thought minister, bio and works below. He is the author of the booklet, "The Golden Key" which many of you read when you joined the group. It is a simple method of thought displacement that has helped countless people to attain peace of mind. If you would like a copy of it, send an email request to me at iamcdb@gmail.com. - Rev. Cheryl

Love -by Emmet Fox
There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer;
No disease that enough love will not heal;
No door that enough love will not open;
No gulf that enough love will not bridge;
No wall that enough love will not throw down;
No sin that enough love will not redeem . . .
It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble,
How hopeless the outlook,
How muddle the tangle,
How great the mistake,
A sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all . . .
If only you could love enough you would be the happiest and most powerful being in the world.

DR. EMMET FOX
(1886 - 1951)

His New York City Ministry Touched The World (1931-1951)

From: Emmet Fox His Life Story
Dr. Emmet Fox was a Minister, Author, Teacher, Healer and Mystic. Emmet Fox, probably more than any other New Thought leader has influenced more people simple because, in his day he attracted wider audiences than anyone else for longer periods of time. To this day, Emmet Fox is read more widely and is understood more clearly than any other New Thought writer.

Closet readers of Dr. Fox can be found in the Episcopal, Catholic, Baptist and Methodist churches, among others. His objective, as a New Thought teacher has always been, not to establish yet another religion, not to establish yet another set of religious doctrines, but to encourage individuals, whether they attend church or not, to develop their own creative power and to personally understand what God is, and what God is all about, and then to be able to relate that to their own lives. In His day, and to this day, Emmet Fox reached more people because he had a talent to speak and write with great clarity, and in a very dynamic way. His message was simple and direct. He said, "Sooner or later you will have to put God first in your life, God must become the only thing that really matters. It need not be and better not be the only thing in your life, but it must be the first thing." He said, "when that happens your life becomes simple, richer and infinitely more worthwhile." He brought new meaning to millions of people around the globe with his golden keys of health, inner peace and success.

In 1931, he became the pastor of The Church of the Healing Christ in New York city, founded by Dr. W. John Murray in 1906, and was called The First Church of Divine Science, in New York City. He was ordained a Divine Science Minister by Dr. Nona Brooks. This was the beginning of one of the most remarkable ministries in America. His Sunday morning lectures at the Hippodrome Theatre, the Manhattan Opera House and Carnegie Hall were attended by over 5000 people. His meditations were powerful and his sermons never lasted more than twenty minutes. He spoke to, and of God in the most personal and intimate terms. Over six hundred thousand copies of his book "Sermon on the Mount" have been distributed and are still popular today. It is in this remarkable book that he reveals a source of universal power that is rightly yours. "This power," states Dr. Fox, "is the real source of all things that exist. It needs only to flow into your being and transform itself into health, into true prosperity, into inspiration, or into anything else you may be needing. The power is there. It is present everywhere. It belongs to nobody in particular because it belongs to all. It is waiting at all times for men and women to call it into use -not merely in crisis, but in every problem however small every day of your life."

"The fact that most people do not suspect the existence of this Power does not change the fact that it is there," says Dr. Fox. "Remember that hardly anyone except a few philosophers suspected the existence of electricity, or the power of the steam, until a few generations ago, then these things were brought into the service of man and have transformed the world. The laws of Nature were just the same then as they are now; only people did not know that such a force existed, and so they had to go without. I believe many of the limitations and difficulties that people take for granted will be things of the past." In this book, Emmet Fox gives the keys to success in life by tapping into the realm of Infinite power. He teaches that man is a child of a perfect God.

Over one half million copies of "Power Through Constructive Thinking" are in circulation. It can be conservatively estimated, that the books and pamphlets he has written have come into the hands of tens of millions of people. His booklet The Golden Key, has topped all sales of new thought books worldwide and continues to be the most sought after booklet in his collection of writings. Dr. Fox was born in Ireland, raised in England, he ministered in America and made his transition in France.

The theme of his teachings is Life is Consciousness and we are what we think. He emphasized that if we want to change our life, we must change our thoughts first. We set forth our own destiny by our thoughts, words, and actions. That there is only one presence and power in the universe, God, all else is an illusion. He gave us the Golden Key. "Love is by far the most important thing of all", he said, "It is the golden gate of paradise. Pray for the understanding of Love, and meditate upon it daily. It casts out fear. It is the fulfilling of the law. Love is absolutely invincible."

"Emmet Fox left a mark. Life has been richer for hundreds of thousands of people, because he lived. He built his church on consciousness, knowing that God is instantly available and everywhere present. Like Peter, he built his church upon a rock, the rock of understanding that God is the only power and the only presence.”


from: Emmet Fox homepage at http://emmetfox.wwwhubs.com/
Emmet Fox was born in Ireland on July 30, 1886, was educated in England, pursued his spiritual career mostly in the United States, and died in France on August 13, 1951.

His father, who died before Fox was ten, was a physician and member of Parliament. Fox attended Stamford Hill Jesuit college near London, and became an electrical engineer. However, he early discovered that he had healing power, and from the time of his late teens studied New Thought. He came to know the prominent New Thought writer Thomas Troward.
Fox attended the London meeting at which the International New Thought Alliance was organized in 1914. He gave his first New Thought talk in Mortimer Hall in London in 1928. Soon he went to the United States, and in 1931 was selected to become the successor to the James Murray as the minister of New York's Church of the Healing Christ. Fox became immensely popular, and spoke to audiences in some of the largest halls in the city. He was ordained in the Divine Science branch of New Thought.

While Emmet Fox lived he addressed some of the largest audiences ever gathered to hear one man's thoughts on the religious meaning of life. His books and pamphlets have been distributed to over three million people and it can be conservatively estimated that they have come into the hands of ten million.

Fox's secretary was the mother of one of the men who worked with Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson, and partly as a result of this connection early AA groups often went to hear Fox. His writing, especially "The Sermon on the Mount," became popular in AA.

The influence of Emmet Fox in the spread of New Thought ideas and emphases lies not simply in the large number of his readers, but in the fact that he is so widely read by ministers of all denominations. A check in large denominational bookstores in various cities from time to time has revealed that Emmet Fox's books are in constant demand; and these are the stores in which ministers chiefly buy their books. They do not, of course, read it as New Thought, but they buy it and read it. There is nothing sectarian, certainly, in the titles "The Sermon on the Mount" and "The Ten Commandments," nor is there anything about them outwardly to indicate that they are New Thought, and nearly half a century after his death, the writings of Emmet Fox remain influential.


Resources:
http://www.emmetfox.net/ Contains a video of one of Fox's talks as well as many of his readings.

http://emmetfox.wwwhubs.com/ Contains many of his readings.

http://www.goldenkeyministry.com/ Unity website dedicated to the teaching of The Golden Key.


Books:
The Sermon on the Mount: The Key to Success in Life

Alter Your Life

Around the Year with Emmet Fox: A Book of Daily Readings

Diagrams for Living: The Bible Unveiled

Find and Use Your Inner Power

Make Your Life Worthwhile

Power Through Constructive Thinking

Stake Your Claim: Exploring the Gold Mine Within

The Ten Commandments: The Master Key of Life

Frederick Bailes, early Science of Mind Teacher

Dr. Bailes, a student of Ernest Holmes, successfully treated many, including himself. His Seven Step treatment method is described below. Notice the similarities to and differences from the method we are using in group. I have his collected essays, which we will read from time to time in group. - Rev. Cheryl

Frederick Bailes
(1889-1970)

Dr. Frederick Bailes, born into a family of pioneers in New Zealand, was educated to be a medical missionary. Upon completing his training, he was diagnosed with diabetes, at the time considered incurable, which prevented him from entering his work. His discovery of the writings of Judge Thomas Troward helped him to develop a lifestyle which led to his complete recovery long before the discovery of insulin.

Later, as a student at a large London hospital, Dr. Bailes closely observed the mental factors entering into the recovery of patients. He noticed that certain fundamental thought-patterns invariably produced bodily reactions. By stimulating his patients causative mental patterns toward healing, Dr. Bailes soon found remarkable results.

Frederick Bailes was among the most popular and important teachers of the Science of Mind. Dr. Bailes served with Science of Mind founder Ernest Holmes as Assistant Dean of the Science of Mind Institute in Los Angeles. He also headed the largest Science of Mind church of its day. In addition, Dr. Bailes was an accomplished metaphysical healer, having healed himself of a so-called incurable disease, using the treatment method he describes below. “The Science of Mind philosophy,” says Dr. Frederick Bailes, “is not a few psychological tricks; it is a life to be lived.”

Dr. Frederick Bailes gave weekly lectures to capacity audiences in Los Angeles and was well known for his twice-weekly radio broadcasts. He is also the author of "Your Mind Can Heal You;" "Basic Principles of the Science of Mind;" "The Healing Power of Balanced Emotions;" and "Collected Essays of Frederick Bailes."

In his book "Your Mind Can Heal You," he gives a seven step approach to spiritual mind treatment. It starts, he says, "with the fundamental truth that the person for whom we are treating is a perfect idea in the Mind of God, and our whole procedure during a treatment is intended to remove from our own mind any idea or picture of imperfection or sickness."

Here are the seven "R's" of Bailes' treatment method:
Relaxation: We assume a position that assures physical relaxation and a quiet mind.

Recognition: We recognize that we are not speaking into a void. We are surrounded by the Creative Mind of the universe, which receives our thought embodied in our words and sets to work to carry it out into material form.

Relationship: We consciously unify with the Creative Mind, knowing that we ourselves, the person treated for, and this Mind are all one. There can never be any separation between them.

Reasoning: To arrive at this inner certainty, we have to dissolve all doubts. We go through a process of reasoning to arrive at this certainty.

Realization: Once we have arrived at the point where we realize the inner perfection of the one being treated for, we shall know it, because we shall have arrived at a place of quiet, calm assurance.

Release: We are not responsible for the outcome of the treatment. Our only responsibility is to build a clear picture in our mind of the perfection of ourselves and the one being treated for, and to remove all doubts about that perfection. We now release this picture to the Creative Mind.

Rejoice: We give thanks for the success of our treatment, not to influence how Mind works but to confirm our belief that the entire situation is resolved in exactly the right and ideal way.

Recap of 4/23 meeting: The Principle and Practice of Science of Mind Simplified

In our discussion at last night's meeting, we went over the basics of Science of Mind to put what we have been learning into a simple perspective. I include the basics here and encourage readers to go back into earlier posts to fill in details. To put these ideas in context, follow along with Holmes' metaphysical charts. The link is included in an earlier post.

Please post any questions you have in the comments section and I will respond to them.

The Principle and Practice of Science of Mind Simplified:
There are two important components of every study, whether it be physics, psychology, accounting or the spiritual path. This is certainly true of Science of Mind, which, because of its wholeness, contains elements of philosophy, psychology, physics and spirituality. The two components of study are principle and practice.

We are studying the principle, the creative process, through the use of Holmes' metaphysical charts. Through these charts, we can see the relationship of the four aspects of creation both in the universal and in the individual.

In the universal, they are (1) Spirit also called the Self-conscious knower, Love, Objective Mind, First Cause; (2) Soul, also called the blind doer, Law, Subjective Mind; (3) the Word, also called Truth; and (4) Body, also referred to as the physical, material world and effect. I went over these in more detail in the last post.

In the individual, because we are made in the image and likeness of the One, the creative process in potential is the same. In actuality, it is dependent on the level of our consciousness or self-awareness pertaining to the Truth of our Being. We are spirit, and are able to embody this to the level of our understanding and acceptance of this. To the extent that we are caught up in the appearances of the material world of effect, perceiving effect to be cause rather than the result of previous thoughts, opinions and beliefs, we will continue to react to these appearances and to manifest old ideas. These old ideas are lower on the scale of intelligence and therefore in vibration; they are incomplete formulations of the Truth. They are subject to the relational, conditional thinking of the dualistic mind in the individual. They are subject to the misperception of lack, limitation, illness, competition, fear because the human mind, at this point is still learning to grasp the nature of infinity, eternality, oneness. We are still in the intellectual stage of understanding these concepts, rather than in the full embodiment of them.

In individual consciousness, our understanding of the nature of life is filtered through our senses. The thoughts and beliefs we hold about ourselves and our relationships to each other, to our environment and to the whole determine what we are willing and able to accept in our lives, as our lives. The Universal Consciousness with a full and total knowing simply announces itself: I AM Love, I AM Truth, I AM Beauty, I AM Wholeness, I AM Peace, I AM Joy, I AM Prosperity.

The vibration of this Truth in Universal consciousness, or our understanding of it in individual consciousness, sets the Law of Mind in motion at the level of our belief. The Law then creates a mold at the same vibrational level as our thought or belief, fills the mold with Universal Substance and it becomes a visible effect in the world or in our lives. Visible and invisible, it is all energy.

In practice, we raise the level of our consciousness and acceptance through the process of Spiritual Mind Treatment, also called Affirmative Prayer. Universal Spirit creates by announcing Itself with its perfect and complete knowledge of the Truth of Being. We consciously co-create by affirming who we believe ourselves to be at the level of our understanding. We increase our awareness of self by increasing our awareness of our Source, by accepting that we are created as an image and likeness of our Source and are therefore fully supported in the highest expression of our lives. We come to see ourselves as a unique fulfillment of Source as us. We turn from the incomplete expressions of self in form to the Truth of our wholeness in Spirit. By accepting and claiming our Truth, we create a new chain of causation by setting the Law into motion at this higher level of vibration. A new mold is made and raises our external circumstances to the higher level of belief we are now vibrating.

We can use either a five or seven step Spiritual Mind Treatment to raise our consciousness and to improve our lives. Our treatment will be successful to the extent that the words we use have deep personal meaning for us and resonate as the Truth for we are then able to speak these words with conviction, with feeling. The stronger the conviction behind our words, the higher the vibration. If we are feeling confusion or resistance during treatment, we stop and treat for clarity first, then begin our treatment anew.

Start your treatment with a statement of intention or focus, ie. I am a magnet for love. My life is prosperous and successful. My perfect right livelihood is on its way to me now. My body radiates health, vigor and well-being. I enjoy peace of mind.

Five Step Treatment:
1. Recognition: What I know about the nature of God, the Universe, the One.
There is One Life, One Source, One Presence, One Power for Good.
I recognize that good as love, intelligence, wholeness, prosperity, beauty, joy, peace. The universe flows in perfect balance, order and harmony. This One is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent.

2. Unification: What I know about my connection to, my relationship with the One.
I am the fulfillment of the One uniquely as me. I am a unique point in God consciousness. I am a thought of God. I am fully supported by the One in the highest expression of my life. I am the activity of God/the Universe as me.

3. Declaration/Realization: In declaration, using inductive reasoning (reasoning from the part to the whole) I direct my thought to a higher embodiment of one or more of the following in my life - health and well-being, prosperity and finances, work and creative expression, love and relationships. The statements are increasingly strong statements of faith about God or the One working in, through and as my life.

The statements must be specific, in the present tense, and made with feeling. I know, I accept, I claim all my good, all that is mine by divine inheritance. Be specific about the nature of this good - my health, my wealth, my harmonious and loving relationships, my fulfillment in my line of work, creative expression, activity. Describe what you desire to see more of in your life, do not outline how it should come about. You are on the planning board, not on the ways and means committee. You are the visionary.

In realization, I know the Truth of my wholeness. I know and I know that I know that I am fully supported in the highest expression of my life, that all is right with my life right here and right now. In realization, you feel the rightness, for there is nothing resisting the Truth.

I can reach realization through declarative statements or I can experience a direct knowing of this Truth through deductive reasoning (reasoning from the whole to the part.) Realization is the ah-ha moment of Truth. I realize my perfect health; I experience the expansive, joyful feeling of living in the house of my dreams or in the completely loving, fulfilling, harmonious, relationship I envision for myself or the inspired flow of creative ideas opening up new avenues into deeper and richer expressions of my innate talents and abilities.

4. Gratitude: I am grateful to know my word of truth has set the law of mind in motion in the direction of my life and circumstances. Even stronger, I am grateful to know my word is Law, that it is done unto me as I believe.

5. Release: I rest in the expectancy of a full demonstration. It is done as I have spoken; I let go and let God, knowing the perfect demonstration is already on its way into my life and affairs. And so it is.

Seven Step Treatment:
Steps 1: Recognition

Step 2: Unification

3. Affirmation: I affirm, I know, I am, I have, I experience...perfect health, wealth, love, creative expression. All that you desire to experience more of in your life.

4. Denial: I turn my back on, I release, I let go of any appearances of lack, limitation, illness, competition, fear, negative emotions or circumstances. They are facts but not the Truth and these appearances have no power over me. I let go of all that I have added to myself that is less than the truth of my perfection and wholeness and turn toward clarity, harmony and total fulfillment. I release all feelings of unforgiveness, resentment, guilt toward myself and others and turn toward love, acceptance and peace. I turn away from all ideas of imperfection, dis-ease, unworthiness and turn toward the Truth of my Being which is whole, perfect, complete, loving and lovable, prosperous, successful, etc.

5. Re-affirmation: Now you are in a more confident position to make stronger affirmations of Truth. I am whole, I am prosperous. I have the full backing and support of the Highest Power that is. I know with the full faith of God that my health is completely restored to its original perfection, that my channels are completely open to receive my full good in the form of financial abundance, unconditional love. I fully realize my creative potential through a strong and perpetual flow of inspired ideas from Creative Intelligence Itself. I bring these ideas into life through my unique skills and talents to the benefit of all, etc.

6.Gratitude

7. Release


Once we complete our treatment, we listen to inner promptings and watch for leadings and opportunities in our everyday life. We pay attention and take inspired action, stepping out in faith. In Science of Mind terms, "we treat and move our feet." This is the true embodiment of our word in our lives. It isn't a fully embodied belief until we act on it. Our actions are indications of our level of faith in the truth of our belief. Thinking nice thoughts might make us feel better and that is a good first step, but it doesn't have a lasting effect on building consciousness, skill or opportunity.

There is a common theme in the teachings of Jesus. He said, "It is done unto you as you believe." and "Your faith hath made you whole." By example, the infirm woman who crawled to touch the hem of his garment was healed by her action, which demonstrated her faith and her desire to be whole. Jesus instructed another invalid who was complaining he had no one to put him into the healing waters, "Take up thy bed and walk!" If we are serious about changing our lives, then our thoughts, beliefs, words and actions must all be in synch. Our actions are demonstrations of our faith in our beliefs. They are the embodiment of our beliefs and have power in them to move mountains - to attract assistance from unknown and unnumbered channels.

The bare bones of Science of Mind:

Principle:
The 4 aspects of the Creative Process:

In the Universal:
1)Spirit, Love, Self-Conscious or Objective Mind
2)Soul, Law, Subjective Mind
3)Word of Truth
4)Body, Physical World, Effect

In the Individual:
1)Spirit, Love, Self-Conscious or Objective Mind
2)Soul, Law, Subconscious Mind
3)Thoughts, Beliefs, Ideas, either consciously or unconsciously held
4)Body, affairs and circumstances, effect

Practice:

Set your intention, then

5 Steps of Treatment:
Recognition, Unification, Declaration/Realization, Gratitude, Release

or

7 Steps of Treatment:
Recognition, Unification, Affirmation, Denial, Re-affirmation, Gratitude, Release

4 Areas of Treatment:
Health and well-being, Love and Harmonious Relationships, Creative Expression and Work, Prosperity and Financial Abundance.

"Treat and move thy feet!"

Recap of 4/9 meeting and reading for 4/16

Last week we reviewed the creative process in the universal using the basic Science of Mind metaphysical chart, showing the four aspects of the process: spirit, soul, body and the word. This entire process happens within the One Mind [of God] because that is all there is.

Spirit, also called love, objective mind, Self-knowing mind or the Presence is the conscious chooser of any of the unlimited ideas in the vast sea/field of infinite possibilities. It is the personal aspect of mind. It is first cause in an endless chain of cause-and-effect. This is the masculine aspect of Mind, the knower. It uses deductive reasoning.

Soul, also called law or subjective mind, is the blind doer, the impersonal aspect, the fertile soil in which the chosen ideas of Spirit incubate and grow into manifest form. It is the repository of all ideas, manifest and unmanifest, actual and potential - the sea/field of infinite possibilities and also the law of averages, the unlimited source of undifferentiated substance from which the material form is molded. This is the feminine apect of Mind. This aspect of mind is also conscious, but it is not self-conscious. It uses deductive reasoning.

The Word is the chosen idea, the vibration of which sets the Soul or Law of Mind in action to produce in material form the exact equivalent of the idea. The higher the vibration, the closer the manifest resembles the pure spiritual idea(l) in unity consciousness. The idea of highest vibration is the One Life, perfect, whole, limitless, balanced, harmonious and complete, whose essence is perfect love, peace, joy, prosperity, beauty and truth.


The body is the manifest idea, circumstances, events. It is the world of the seen, all of which is effect. In the universal, it is the vast network of galaxies, the planetary systems and everything on every planet. It uses both inductive and deductive reasoning. It is the known.

We used the analogy of the farmer (Spirit) who plants a tomato seed (thought) into the soil (Soul.) The soil (Soul) has all the substance needed (minerals, moisture, etc.) to grow the tomato seed (thought) into a tomato plant (body, material form.) The farmer does not dig up the soil to see if anything is happening underground. S/he knows (has faith) that the seed s/he has planted is good, that s/he is now done and the soil (Soul) will produce the rest. S/he knows a tomato plant will result and not a pumpkin vine. This is the undeviating law.


The Creative Process and Evolution
We are each a unique idea of the One [God, Source, Mind, Universe] residing in the One. We were made in the image and likeness of the One, therefore, we can and do use the same creative process that resulted in the galaxies, the mountains, the oceans, the great varieties of flowers, trees, birds, mammals and the infinitessimal and numberless micro-organisms. We are manifest spirit. We are the eyes, hands, and heart of the One God. We are the fulfillment of the One in the physical.


We are, each of us, at every moment, using our minds to think things into being. If we do not use our minds consciously, our lives follow the tendency of thought for the human race as it has evolved thus far, called "race consciousness" by Holmes. This tendency of thought sets the law of mind in action to produce the current average physical human condition in all its imperfection. This is called the "law of averages."



The human mind experiences the dualistic thinking that results from a belief that the knower is separate from the known, that the self is separate from the Source. This belief in separation results in the mistaken notions of lack, limitation, illness and death. These notions are not so much wrong as they are incomplete.


We are still evolving. In New Thought, we co-create with God in conscious evolution, bringing our lives "above the fray" of dualistic thinking, the law of averages and the human condition. We commune with the Presence through treatment, yoga, meditation and witnessing nature, and experience the oneness of all things.


In unity consciousness, we experience direct knowing or inspiration. It is understanding directly or "face-to-face" rather than "seeing through the glass darkly" as stated in 1Corinthians13. "We know as we are known." We know the Truth of our being, that we are whole, perfect and complete; that everything we need for the highest expression of our lives is already available at that higher vibratory level. All we need do is claim it, and we claim it through our convicted word of Truth. We accept it as already ours, knowing that, to accept is to receive. We know that, like the tomato seed, most of the creative process happens underground where we can't see it. Like the farmer, we plant our seed and wait expectantly, knowing what we planted will come to pass in the light of day.


This new higher-level thought raises the understanding for the whole human race, the process of spiritual evolution. By taking inspired action, we manifest this higher vibratory thought, and it becomes visibly accessible to the whole. In so doing, we raise the law of averages for the whole human race, participating in the evolutionary rise of human or self-consciousness to the next level, called by some cosmic consciousness (awareness of unity with the whole,) and manifesting in a more highly intelligent race, homo noeticus.



Roger Bannister, the runner, illustrated this by breaking the 4 minute mile. He saw with his mind it could be done. (He dipped his measuring vessel into the infinite sea of limitless possibilities and claimed an as yet unmanifest idea.) In creating a higher mental equivalent, he was able to accomplish a new thing, to materialize this new idea. Once others saw with their eyes that it could be done, they were able to break the 4 minute mile also. The human consciousness has evolved into accepting the idea of a less-than-4 minute mile as a fact, just as human consciousness evolved centuries ago into accepting a round rather than a flat world as fact.


We will soon be getting into the idea of conscious evolution more deeply through the writings of Holmes, Troward, and Atkinson. This is where volition comes into play.

Reading and Discussion
Last week we detoured from our Science of Mind reading to seek a deeper understanding of the terms will, volition and choice used by Holmes in his definition of terms in metaphysical chart 01.

We began reading "Thought Vibration, or The Law of Attraction in the Thought World" by William Walker Atkinson at Chapter 3 - A Talk About the Mind. We will continue this week at paragraph 8. This chapter explains the difference between active mentation or active efforts of the mind (new thoughts) and passive mental process (habitual thought.)

Testimonials
Several people shared testimonials of the good that has come into their lives in the form of resources, unexpected income and specific demonstrations of treatment. Our faith in the process continues to build as we apply ourselves to principle and see the results in our lives!

Announcement
We now have 3 people car-pooling to Hingham for the May 2 Blue Mountain Center meditation initiation and retreat. Contact me if you would like to join us. Go to http://www.easwaren.org/ to register for this event. There is a sliding fee and scholarship available to make it possible for everyone to attend who has a mind to. It also allows everyone to express their gratitude to Source by supporting this channel of Spirit in the continuation and growth of its work as they are led.