The Still Small Voice Is the Only Power - Part 1

0:00 We will have an interesting experience this week. But first of all, let me bid you welcome to our first 1958 Infinite Lake class in New York. We had some work here two years ago and uh some of you may wonder why we haven't had some preliminary lectures this time

0:46 as we always do in our beforehour classwork. But my experience two years ago here in New York was so shocking that I was a little bit afraid of it. We had a lecture at the Barbas and Plaza Theater. And by the numbers there, it was evident they were not all Infinite Way students, but many who had probably come to hear for the first time something about the message. And instead of

1:35 giving them a nice little dish of ice cream soule or something, out of my mouth came a message that I had never heard before, a revelation I had never received and a shocking one. I went home that night to the hotel. I sat up all night praying that no one in that in that room understood it. And I must have been successful because the next day everyone came smiling to me saying, "Oh, how very nice that lecture was last night." And I knew by that they hadn't understood it.

2:20 They wouldn't have come smiling had they understood it. They would have been shocked as I was, as I still am. This is two years later and it still isn't in book form, but it will be it will be at the right time. Meanwhile, we've had two years of gradually unfolding that message that came that night. Two years of getting used to its shock. Two years of putting it in language that when it does reach book form will not be quite as shocking as it was that night.

3:05 The nature of revelation is always something shocking. The reason is that revelation always destroys our pet beliefs, our pet theories, things which we have come to accept as if they were gospel truth. When the revelation came that this earth wasn't wasn't square, it was round, it was so shocking that those who brought forth that revelation spent the rest of their days in prison. And then the man that sailed around the waters of the earth and proved that the

3:52 earth was round, he spent the rest of his days in prison, too, for daring to prove that what everybody believed was wrong. All revelation comes as a shock. All revelation must come as a shock because of what it does to us when we realize how wrong we have always been and our friends and relatives and ancestors and schools and colleges and religions. And so there came an experience to me

4:41 about 1934. It isn't too long ago that this world lived a completely materialistic life. And the only things which it called real or believed to be real were the material things of life. Into that world came a shocking revelation and that is that there is a world of mind even a world of mind power. And uh students of the 19th century

5:28 know with what a shock that revelation came to this world and what it did to the world all the way from Anton Mesmer in Germany across France and England all the way across to the United States up through Mrs. Eddie's day, the tremendous shock that this world received when it learned that there was a mind power. And of course, you see, I came into this world during the period of that mind era. And I suppose that if it hadn't been for revelation,

6:15 I too would have been stuck in that particular era and uh lived out my life there, never realizing that this world of mind power was is was and is as illusurary as the world of material power. In 19 34, sitting at my desk, a message came into me from out of the nowhere that thought isn't power.

7:02 And you know that was a very bad time to receive a message like that for that was the very era of the uh tremendous belief that thought is power. Not only that but now we were commencing to believe that thought was the real power and the only power. And here comes this unfoldment. Call it what you will. Thought is not power. Well, this was as upsetting to me as the revelation that the earth is round must have been to those entrenched

7:51 in the old beliefs of a four cornered world. And inside I churned. Inside I was disturbed. Inside a revolution went on. Thought isn't power. In this age when so many teachings are dedicated to that very sentence, thought is power. Thought is all power. Thought governs. And so it took days and days and days of

8:36 meditation, days and days of pondering to learn whether I was being deceived from inside or whether something of an important nature was coming through. Of course, when you are using the Bible every day as a sort of a textbook of life, you become familiar with so many passages that it isn't difficult to turn to scripture for proof of any thought or idea that may pop into one's head. And so it wasn't difficult to recall that Jesus Christ had said,

9:23 "Who by taking thought could add to a statue one cubit?" Who by taking thought could make a white hair black? And if you by taking thought cannot do the least of these things, how then are you going to do the greater works? Well, that was comforting for ever since uh my start in searching for an a truth, a god, a principle to live by. Jesus Christ has been something of a

10:09 teacher, but more even than a teacher, a close personal friend and guide, someone to whom I could always turn for instruction and in whom I have placed my confidence as the greatest teacher ever to appear on earth. And it was comforting then to know that he didn't believe in the power of thought. The question was was he disbelieving in the power of evil thought or of good thought

10:54 or was he nullifying all power and thought? And so for quite a while this inner experience continued until it became as clear to me that thought is not power as it has been ever since and that is many years many years in which I've had the opportunity to prove that thought is not power. But there was still a question, a tremendous question

11:40 because we have made mind synonymous with God. And here you have really and truly a mystery. For if mind is God, thought must be power. It took a long long time for an answer to come to that but a direct answer came within. Mind is not God and God is not mind. Well, there of course I began to come in conflict with a great part of the world in which

12:28 I was moving. But there it was, and on that point I had to stand until it was proven to me beyond all question of doubt that mind cannot properly be a synonym for God. To begin with, there can only be one of anything. And so there can only be one mind. Whether you put a capital M on that or a small M would make no difference. It would still be mind. Unless you wish to set up the premise that there are two minds.

13:15 If you do, you're in a dilemma. You'd have to have two loves and two spirits and two souls, two substances. And you can't do that. And you learn that mind is not God. It is a faculty given to man, a faculty of awareness. an avenue of awareness. It is not creative. It is not power. With my mind, I certainly know that you are sitting here before me. But with my mind, I can't place you

14:03 there. I can't manufacture you. All I can do with my mind is to know that you are here. But that's because you already are. I had nothing to do with that so far as mind process is concerned. In the same way there are truths we're told, ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. And many people have come to believe in these in this metaphysical age that you could know some truth with your mind and really and truly become free.

14:48 Of course, 3/4 of the metaphysical world has been wrecked on that belief. You can't make anything happen with your mind. God made everything happen in the beginning. God created all that was made and all that God made is good. And all this is done by God not in the past, not in the future, but in an everpresent now. All you have to do to set aside time is to ask yourself when did 2 * 2 become four? and time will have evaporated for you.

15:36 All you have to do is ask yourself, when did banana trees begin giving only bananas? When did apple trees produce only apples? And you'll know that from everlasting to everlasting, this has been true. It never began. And with all your mentalizing, you can't make it begin. And you can't stop it being God in the beginning. And not in the beginning of time. There is no beginning of time. The only time there is is now. And it is in this now

16:25 that creation is appearing to us. Is it being created not any more than 2 * 2 are being created as four? Not anymore than the law of like beginning like is being created now. Not anymore than that law that governs time, tides, sun, moon, stars, planets. None of that is being created now. All of this is appearing to us in the now just when it appeared to our ancestors in the now just when it appeared to us in some phase of our lives.

17:14 The idea that mind is creative must be dropped by every student of the infinite way and your mind must be given its rightful place in your experience. Do not try to get rid of your mind. Do not try to stop your mind. Do not underestimate the value of your mind. Understand its use and function in your experience. When truth reveals itself to anyone, it becomes apparent as an activity of our mind.

18:01 When an author writes, when a sculptor sculpts, when a painter paints, when a musician plays or sings, this activity appears through them and as an activity of the mind. Mind is a wonderful thing. But don't give it creative powers. If you wish to write, if you wish to paint, if you wish to sculpt, if you wish to compose, don't rack your brain. Become quiet. Be still. Be still and know that I am God. Be receptive inwardly.

18:46 Be at peace. And then let let the rhythm of God flow. Let God flow into your consciousness as music, poetry, drama, invention, science, art, anything you like. Spiritual truth if you like if that's your work. But don't try to invent it. Don't try to create it. Don't try to think it up. Whatever you turn out will be so limited and so finite that you'll find very few interested in what you do. But let it flow forth from the infinity that we call God or spirit. Let it flow

19:32 into the mind and it'll be original. It'll be infinite. It'll be beautiful, harmonious, joyous. Everything that the world is looking for, you see, everything that comes out of the mind of man has two qualities, good and evil. If it flowed from God through the mind, it would have only one quality, that would be good.

20:17 Probably no greater day ever dawned for mankind than yesterday. Yesterday, the 2nd of May, 1958. It can go down in history as the date of man's greatest opportunity as a never to be forgotten date. Why? Well, you know, ever since the days of bows and arrows, men have been trying to create greater and greater forces and powers.

21:03 And uh they brought forth everything from spears and bows and arrows up to atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs. They're almost at the zenith of material power. And had that vote in the United Nations yesterday gone differently than it did, mankind would have been thrown back a thousand years in his development. Because instead of facing the issue before him, he would have sat back and rested in the safety and security

21:51 of promises of nations and he would have rested in them and he would have been satisfied. We are not going to use the bomb and our enemy isn't going to use the bomb. They both said so in the United Nations. Of course, you've witnessed those promises before, haven't you? The scraps of paper that have been torn up so many times in your lifetime and mine. And yet the world really would have gone unsatisfied today. It has another scrap of paper. Instead of which today every man and woman in this world

22:36 is faced with a question now where shall I place my faith when we have nobody's assurance that they won't throw bombs now where shall I place my faith when I've been put on the alert that we may have the greatest material force ever gathered together thrown right at us. Now, where do we go from here? We can't just say to our government, why don't you make a bigger one? It wouldn't help if we had a bigger one because we're not the type of people

23:22 that would throw it unless somebody else got rough first. By that time, it would be too late. Now we are in the position where as a nation we cannot rely on material force or power. So probably we will have to ask this question. Do all these people who have been studying uh all of the mental sciences, the psychologists, the psychiatrists, the metaphysicians, do they have a mind power now, a mental power or the right kind of a thought that we can hold?

24:08 What kind of thought are we going to hold now that has power? What are we going to do with our mind? Oh, well, if our mind is God, we have nothing to fear. Yes, but who really and truly believes that our mind is God? If we believed that, we'd have nothing left to fear. Because with our mind being God, who can lift their finger against us? Without realization, the whole mental creation falls to earth. For nobody anywhere, any time can believe that because we have put a capital M on mind, we're now safe from

24:55 anything, anytime, anywhere. No, now we have to go beyond mind. The question arises, is there a place to go beyond mind? Is there a place to go where bombs are nullified? Is there a place to go where matter is in power? Where thought isn't power? Where safety, security, and peace can be absolutely guaranteed? Of course there is.

25:42 Isn't anyone in this room who hasn't been studying truth long enough to know that there is God is a fortress and a high tower. God is an abiding place. In him we live and move and have our being. God is a spirit and his power is spiritual. And how is that power made manifest on earth? How is the power of God brought into human experience? We turn to the Bible again.

26:31 God is not in the whirlwind. God is not in the volcano. God is not in uh matter. God is not in material force. God is not in material power. Where is he? The still small voice. All the power of the godhead is in the still small voice. You need nothing beyond that. You need not concern yourself with bombs or protection against bombs. You need not concern yourself about depressions. You need not concern yourself about recessions. One thing only

27:20 the ability to be still and know that God is closer to you than breathing and nearer than hands and feet. And God manifests himself, expresses himself through the still small voice within you. It is true that a thousand may fall at your left hand and 10,000 may fall at your right hand. There's not much you can do about that at this present moment except demonstrate in your individual experience that none of these things can come nigh your dwelling place. Because as you demonstrate this,

28:09 some friend, some relative, some neighbor perceives and begins to follow suit. The first thing you know, there are two or more of us gathered together in this name, in this realization, in this revelation. The power of God is in the still small voice. We bring healing to the mind. If mind were God, it wouldn't need healing. We bring healing to the mind and to the body, to the purse, to our human relationships

28:54 through our ability to become receptive and responsive to that still small voice. We begin to demonstrate in our individual experiences that none of these evils of the world could nigh our dwelling place. We begin to demonstrate that which was revealed to us 2,000 years ago. I am come that ye might have life and that you might have it more abundantly. I Yes. The still small voice at the center of your being is that which God

29:40 has given to you. as your individual savior, as your individual Messiah, as your individual unfoldment of divine harmony. When you become receptive and responsive to the still small voice within your own being, you can walk this earth in peace, in safety, in security, in abundance. Now just think what has happened

30:25 because the subject of spiritual healing was brought back upon the earth in the middle of the 19th century. It came too to have its birth in a manger. It was not received in high places. It was not respected. A place had to be built for it in the consciousness of mankind. And I think that it was a fortunate thing that it came into the world through a woman like Mrs. Eddie

31:11 gifted with the vision to set a protection around it. So that as time went on, spiritual healing has come to be respected and people who indulge and engage in spiritual healing have come to be respected and honored in their communities in all of the world. That could only be done because every avenue of protection and integrity was thrown around the message to such an extent that to this day now the entire world is opening itself to the subject of spiritual healing. The entire world is that which came into this world an

31:56 outlaw, illegitimate offspring if you wish, is now honored and respected and sought after. The day is coming when spiritual healing will be in every church on the face of the globe. In your day and mine, it will be in half the churches. And uh it won't be too long till every church finds a way to open itself to the subject of spiritual healing. What is the value to the world of spiritual healing?

32:41 As such, very little. Because whether we get healed of a headache with an aspirin tablet for 5 cents or pay $2 for a spiritual treatment doesn't really matter too much. In both cases, the result is the same. The headache has been healed. But spiritual healing has deeper significance than that. And even if you knew you could be healed for five cents, take my word for it. If you can be healed for $5, take that. Because in the spiritual treatment, your soul faculties are touched

33:29 and aroused and awakened. And then ultimately you learn what I'm saying to you now. There is a spiritual power and bombs can't touch it. Depressions can't reach it. Flames can't burn it. Water can't drown it. It isn't only Christianity that knows that. The Bhagavad Gita of India tells you the same in the same words. All scripture reveals that there is a transcendental presence which when it encompasses your being, when you embrace it, when it reaches your heart center,

34:16 it sets you apart from the world. And then the germs that lay low the world with grip and flu and so forth, these do not come nigh your dwelling place. And if they do, it only takes a few hours to see them removed. The alcoholism and the drug addiction and the juvenile delinquency, these do not come nigh your household, or if they do, they're quickly dispelled. Because you have found the fourth dimension of life. How to hide yourself in the secret place of the most high.

35:05 How to live and move and have your being in an atmosphere of love instead of hate, injustice, inequality. There is such a dimension that is the whole essence of the message of the infinite way. The secret of life isn't in material force or power. The secret of life isn't in mental powers. The secret of life is in the still small voice. The secret of life is in just such things as I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.

35:52 I in the midst of thee amy. You see, throughout all ages, the world has been gifted with mystics, great mystics, who have made tremendous contributions to the religious and literary world. But the masses of mankind, the numbers have not heeded these mystics nor their mystical teachings. The reason is this.

36:40 What I am saying to you cannot be understood, cannot even be believed by your mind. Your mind cannot encompass spiritual presence or spiritual power. Your mind can only grasp that which can be seen, heard, tasted, touched and smelled. And that is why it has been said that thoughts are things. This is more true than you can believe. Thoughts are things. Thoughts are as material as things are. So therefore, thoughts can't be God. You see,

37:26 to understand the spiritual wisdom of this world, your soul faculties must be opened. Your spiritual discernment must be aroused, awakened. Awake thou that sleepest. Christ will give thee light. As human beings, we are all asleep. We're asleep in the belief in material powers and mental powers. And we're asleep to the reality. asleep to the fact that there is a transcendental presence and power, a mystical presence and power, that which is called God. When men write about God, think about

38:12 God, talk about God, and pray to God, they're in the human world where God doesn't operate. That's why there are so few answers to prayer. So few people are praying with their mind. Not only that, they're using words and thoughts in prayer. And if ever anything is clear in a spiritual teaching, it is that words and thoughts are not power. God's thoughts are not your thoughts. God's ways are not your ways. God's power is not your power

38:59 up. How do we avail ourselves of God's power through the still small voice? Do you think for a moment that that's your voice or mine? Don't be deceived. The greatest master of them all said, "I can of my own self do nothing. If I speak of myself, I bear witness to a lie." Do you think that any of us then lesser lights have any right ever to believe that our thoughts and our words are power? Heaven forgives such egotism.

39:48 To be the recipient of the benefits of prayer, you must learn to be still and let the still small voice utter itself within you. He uttered his voice, the earth meltth. You don't utter your voice and make this earth of error melt. I can't open my mouth and make this earth of error melt. But I can be still as I have learned to be these last 20 odd years and let this infinite invisible flow out. I have learned to be so still that nothing comes forth but a deep breath. And I've seen sickness healed and sin

40:36 and lack. Not by any power of man's thinking, right thinking. I've never seen men wrecked by wrong thinking. Only one thing wrecks men. Material thinking, whether it's good or bad. Don't think for a moment that only bad people are wrecked in this life. Good ones end up in the same grave with the same diseases, with the same sins in their families, if not in themselves. Don't ever believe for a moment that only the evil people of this world get punished. Every man, woman, and child on the face

41:21 of the globe is punished who continues to live in material thinking, whether it's good thinking or bad thinking. Materialism is the sin and that includes mentalism for mind and matter is one, thoughts or things. Material thinking is always motivated by the desire to get to achieve to accomplish to add unto oneself.

42:11 Spiritual thinking is always motivated by an outpouring from the center of one's being. And the more spiritual, the wider the circle that it embraces. In the beginning, spiritual thinking things mostly of its own family, community, nation, until spiritual awareness grows to such an extent that in one blinding flesh an in an individual realizes like God is the reality of individual.

42:56 That must mean friend and foe. That must mean Jew and Greek, white and black, bond and free. God is the life of individual being, whether it's the life of a blade of grass or the life of the fish in the sea or the life of the man walking the earth. And when you once see that, gaze outward and behold thy brother, thy sister. And when you do, you understand the meaning of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. You understand the great master call no man on earth your father. One is your father. Only one. We then be brethren and

43:44 sisters. Who we? We sitting in this room. It was never addressed. So that we was addressed to the world. It included the bond and the free. It included the Jew and the Greek. It included all mankind. Spiritual awareness then is that living out from the center of one's being which encompasses this entire world. It has been my privilege on this trip to speak to I think about four unity centers or unity churches

44:30 in the cities where I have visited and a religious science church too. And in each instance I have been led to say this and I repeat it for you. The world is seeking peace. peace on earth and isn't going to find it in the near future. We must set the example that later will bring peace on earth. If we of the metaphysical world, we who are students of the infinite way or Christian science or unity, the new thought teachings, if we cannot agree

45:18 that there is only one God, one life, one soul, one being, and uh that regardless of the difference in our approaches to the subject that our goal is the same, the demonstration of God on earth, not the demonstration of things, not the demonstration of a new way to get automobiles or cure bodies, but that our goal is the demonstration of God in individual experience. When we agree to that and let that love flow from us to each other, we will then be able to set the pattern for the Protestant world, the Catholic world, the Jewish world, the white world and the black world, the brown world

46:07 to come into an agreement that we be one of one household, one family, but never believe that until the metaphysical movements of the world can come into better relationships with each other that this can ever be a universal thing on earth. We must first break down the barriers so that we acknowledge regardless of approach that we are united in this that we agree that there is but one father, the one in heaven. That all of us are united by an invisible bond of spiritual brotherhood and spiritual sisterhood. And that our purpose is to demonstrate

46:53 God. Demonstrate that God is our abiding place, our safety, our security, our high tower, our supply. God is our transportation. We don't demonstrate automobiles. We demonstrate the presence and the power of God. And we demonstrate it not by taking thought. For who by taking thought can add anything to this world? It already exists. God made everything in the beginning and it's here. We won't gain it by taking thought. We will gain it by opening ourselves to the still small voice. And when that still small voice is upon us, we will find our

47:38 automobile at the door if that's our need. Or a steamship if that's our need. A home or a companion if that should be our need. But at least we will have arrived at that place where we stop trying to tell God what we need and leave it a little bit to the all- knowing mind to know our need and to fulfill our need. For many years, it has been my hope that I could speak freely on the subject of mysticism. And uh I had my joy in Chicago last month when

48:26 we had an entire class on the subject of mysticism. And I know that as we go forward from that point that it will be possible to carry our students further along that mystical path to where each one comes into the realization not only of his true identity but of the true identity of all mankind of all men on the face of the globe. to where a universal love can come through.

49:15 I want to show you in this week's class how we have held ourselves in bondage to our problems and how we can free ourselves of our problems. And the first step in that we have taken tonight. I ask you to see not to accept my word. I mean to see if necessary go home tonight and spend this night in meditation or all day tomorrow until you see this point. Mind

50:01 is not a creative faculty. With your mind, you are not going to create your good or evil. God already is and your good already is. And because of omnipresence, your good is already here where you are. The place whereon thou standest is holy ground. All of God is where you are. All of God's grace is active and operating where you are. You need no mind action to cause your good, to create your good or to bring it forth. God does all these

50:48 things. You must be still. You must be still and let God come through. The second step we take is when you realize that your good and your evil of human experience is a creation of your own mind and that it must be dispelled there so that you no longer concern yourself with your human good or your human evil but with the demonstration of your spiritual good, the gifts of God.

51:33 Now, let us do this together. Close your eyes. Relax. Be as comfortable as you can. There is no mystical reason, no occult reason for any position that you may assume. It is strictly one of comfort. The more comfortable you the more comfortably you place your body, the easier it will be to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. That is the only reason

52:20 for anyone suggesting to you any particular position to sit in when you are meditating because after a while you will learn that it is totally unimportant whether you are sitting standing or standing on your head whether you're driving a car or whether you're in the battlefront. You can meditate just as well doing one thing as another or being in any position lying down, standing up or upside down. It is only in the beginning where it is more satisfactory to make the body comfortable that it does not intrude into your thoughts. Now that we are comfortable,

53:10 let us take either the person who is the most troublesome one in all your life, the one you think you'd like to get rid of, or the one you'd like to improve or change or correct or reform. And if there's no such person, let's take the condition. Whether it's lack, sin, or disease, let us take something that to you is very objectionable, something you'd gladly exchange for a counterfeit nickel.

53:59 Let us see where it exists. And I don't find any of those things in my mind. So that means if you've got them in your mind, that's where they exist. They are in your mind. Are they there as actual person or condition? Or does what you have in your mind represent a concept of a person or a condition, a theory or a belief.

54:52 You see, you haven't really got a person or a condition in your mind. What you're holding there is a thought about a person or a condition. What you're holding there is a concept about a person or a condition. So let us understand this clearly. There's no person troubling you and there's no condition troubling you. You are entertaining some concept of a person or a condition and that concept is fighting with you. Why is it fighting with you and disturbing you? Because it isn't true.

55:38 It isn't true. If you have a right concept of me or anything approaching a right concept of Joel, it isn't waring with you. It isn't disturbing you. It isn't upsetting you. In fact, you're quite at peace with it. You're enjoying it. But on the other hand, if you're not, you may accept it from me that you have a very wrong concept of me. For there isn't anything in my mind. There isn't anything in my soul. There isn't anything in my body that's at all destructive to you, harmful to you, injurious to you in any way, shape,

56:24 manner, or form. And so if I'm disturbing you, it isn't me. It's some false concept that you're entertaining about me. Ah, but this other person of whom you're thinking or this other condition of whom you're thinking, you believe that that's different. Here you really know. No, you don't. No, you don't. And here you'll have to take my word for it. This person of whom you're thinking is God itself individually expressing itself on earth. This is the very Christ of God whom you

57:10 are malpracticing against whom you are bearing false witness. You are the sinner. You are bearing false witness against this neighbor, friend, relative. You are entertaining a wrong picture of God's own image and likeness. You have the right now to ask if I can prove it. Yes, I can prove it. So can every metaphysical practitioner, more especially those who are working from the spiritual plane. Because every spiritual healer,

57:57 takes any case that you present to him, saint or sinner, poor or rich, sick or well, and instantly recognizes God the father in heaven is the only father of men. Therefore, we are all spiritual being. God is the life of us. God is the soul. God is the mind. God is the spirit. God is the animating principle of our being.

58:47 God itself is the life of us. God has breathed its own life into us as us. And we as spiritual healers bear witness to this truth. And what becomes of the sinner? What becomes of the sin? What becomes of the disease? What becomes of the dying? They melt. They dissolve into nothingness. They disappear from sight. Why? Well, now you can't make 2 * 2 is four disappear. You can't make the law of light be getting light disappear. You can't make do measo disappear. You cannot destroy

59:34 reality.