Stages of Consciousness

There are not three stages of life -- the material, the mental and the spiritual. The material and the mental are one, although they constitute two degrees of the same one. Remember, the material and the mental are one. In this stage thoughts are things; beliefs produce conditions.

Ordinarily in metaphysical teaching, the mental and the spiritual are considered one; and therefore, you may have heard or read the term, "mentally spiritual." Be careful of it because it is dangerous to your progress. There is no such thing as mentally spiritual because the mental and the physical are two strata or stages of the one; the physical is the more gross; the mental is the higher form, but it is still just a higher form of the material. The proof of this may be seen in such statements as "thoughts are things" and "as a man thinketh so is he," meaning, if he thinks good her will manifest good, and if he thinks evil he will manifest evil. Thinking which produces things and thinking which can produce either good or evil cannot be spiritual.

Notice that nowhere does it say that thinking will produce spirituality. On the contrary, we are told by the greatest spiritual Light, "Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature?" And from Isaiah, "For my thoughts cannot be your thoughts." In other words, human thinking is not spiritual.

Until you realize that the physical and mental realm are one and that one the mortal and material, you will be looking for your good in the wrong place. "Not by might (physical) nor by power (mental) but by my spirit saith the Lord." You are not consciously in the spiritual realm or Kingdom of God, harmony, until you rise above things and thoughts. If you feel this is difficult you can understand one reason why so few have attained it. Another reason is false teaching. Men have become satisfied when they reached the mental realm, thinking they were in heaven or state of harmony -- only to find sooner or later they were leaning on a reed. A day comes when they need a right thought, and it doesn't come, or it doesn't work.

I pray God that you realize you are listening to the deepest wisdom of the ages -- the truth about Heaven, harmony. I can reveal this to you and with patience on the part of you and me, I can assist you in its realization -- but you have to accept, to see, to understand and finally to realize and demonstrate this truth of Truth.

While you are delving around in thoughts -- even in good thoughts -- you are merely in a higher state of materiality where there are the same opposites: good and evil, health and sickness, life and death, poverty and wealth, discord and harmony. In the spiritual Kingdom there is only infinite, eternal perfection of Life eternal and immortal.

In the physical realm, a fall produces a bruise or break; in the mental there is a belief of accident producing a belief of bruise or break. In the physical, age produces loss of faculties, of teeth, of vitality; in the mental the belief of age produces these same physical discords.

In spiritual consciousness none of these mental beliefs are found nor any of their physical outpicturing. The spiritual realm has neither beliefs nor conditions -- just the eternal grace of divine Being.

Probably when you first studied Truth, you found it a difficult thing to rise above the physical to the mental; no doubt you struggled with yourself to learn that physical effects had mental causes. Now you have achieved it -- and I tell you that you have merely attained a higher state of materiality. I tell you that the physicals and the mental are two stages of one and that one mortal and material. Now you must rise above things and thoughts.

What difference does it make whether it is because of a belief that green apples cause cramps -- or just because of green apples themselves. You still have cramps to eliminate from thought and green apples to eliminate from the body. At this point you will ask what to do or think in case the green apples produce cramps. The moment you leave the realm of things and thoughts, they will have no effect -- or probably you won't eat them. For the moment, realize that neither the apples nor the belief about them is power, because of the First Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," and you know this Me is Spirit; therefore, the only Power is the one Power and I AM that one. What power has either the apple or the belief since I AM the law -- the only law unto both apples and beliefs? Do you remember that you were given dominion over the things 0f the earth and the thoughts of the above, or mental realm? You are the law, and neither things nor thoughts can govern, control or affect you.

Remember that stating this Truth is not power -- is not the healer; this Truth itself, unstated, is the Power and Presence. This Truth would be the only factor in your existence now but for the acceptance of duality -- a selfhood apart from God.

What is the spiritual Kingdom or consciousness like, since you have never tasted or touched it in the realm of things or thoughts? That is our next step of realization and you will attain it in proportion to your ability to release yourself from "taking thought."

One thing is certain: spiritual consciousness is not going to patch up your outworn human experience; it is not going to doctor your ills or add dollars to your income (though it may appear to do just those very things): No -- spiritual consciousness will manifest itself in a completely new, vital, spiritual, eternal existence and only the world of humans will see it as improved humanhood. You will see it as it really is -- omnipresence.

~ Joel Goldsmith / Spiritual Interpretation of Scripture ~