A Treatment and Middle Path
A profound lecture by Joel Goldsmith exploring the revolutionary approach to spiritual healing through the "middle path" - transcending human sympathy to recognize Christ as the only true identity.
The Foundation of Healing Work
The Middle Path Principle
"This is the point that I wish to make that simplifies healing work if you catch it but it is the one point on which oh I suppose 99% of us fall down and uh it is the one point that is never covered in any metaphysical teaching, not Christian science, not unity, not new thought."
Beyond Human Sympathy
"Actually, this constitutes the basis of healing work as I understand it. But it requires the development of something that makes the middle path possible. The development of some inner sense that catches what I'm about to say."
The Human Picture
"We have a patient called John Jones. And John Jones asks for help because he's ill. Right there you have a human being at the moment ill, but nevertheless a human being aging."
The Limitation of Physical Healing
The Heart Disease Case
"One was a man dying of heart disease after years of being under doctor's here and finally being told that this is the last week. This is the last attack. There is no further hope."
"Five weeks later, the same doctor took a cardio craft and found not one single scar on his heart, not one trace of heart disease, and never again did he have one single murmur from the heart."
The Tragic Outcome
"But this man decided, now I'm so well, watch me make money now. And two years later, he had made so he had made a lot of money for the next two years, but he committed suicide."
"That healing had not brought spiritual regeneration to the man. It had brought no desire for God. It was nothing more than a sick man made well."
The Leukemia Healing
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The Diagnosis
"I had another case of a man dying of leukemia and uh this man was in a hospital. One of our students met his wife on the street one day. They were very good friends. And the wife said, 'Well, I've just come from the hospital and they say my husband will pass tonight.'"
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The Rejection
"'Wouldn't you like spiritual help for your husband?' 'No, we don't believe in that.' 'Well, don't you think he might like it?' 'No, he doesn't believe in.' 'Well, would you speak to him about it?' 'Oh, yes. I'm going back to the hospital and I certainly will speak to him and I'll phone you.' And she phoned him and said, he said, 'No, he doesn't believe that nonsense.'"
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The Realization
"And aren't you forgetting the teaching of the infinite way? What verdict? What man? What have we got to do with a sick man? Are we in the business of healing sick people? Do we much care whether they're sick or well? Why should we? It's their demonstration."
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The Healing
"And Saturday that man was released from the hospital completely healed. A miracle had taken place that the doctors said they had never seen but which they also said certainly sometimes happens."
The Tragic Pattern Repeats
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The Second Chance
"So when this man came out of the hospital, our friend went to him and told him about this experience. Oh, nonsense. Doctor says those things happen once in a while."
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Building a Home
"We went to his wife and told her that in as much as they had never had a home up to land and he had had uh this second chance given to him, he thought he would give her a home and he was going to build a nice one for her."
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The Fatal Fall
"And he did. He began building a home immediately and when he got up to the roof, he was standing up there one day and fell off and was killed."
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The Lesson
"Now there again, there was no spiritual regeneration. There was no turning from uh matter to the other evidence.ly in both these cases these men had come to the end of their span for one reason or another and there's nothing we could do to prolong it."
The True Vision of Christ Identity
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The Eternal Question
"Are we interested in whether a person's tombstone says 1953 or 1955? Is it important what date is on that tombstone except for some human reason is not our work the realization of Christ as individual life never born and never dying"
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The True Vision
"isn't that our vision that whether we see a room full of well people or sick people Christ is their true identity the sickness or the wellness depends on our recognition of it and ultimately on theirs."
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The Middle Path
"Now, I call this the middle path. And it is for this reason Jon Jones now asks for help on the telephone or in a letter or in person."
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The Practitioner's Choice
"Are we going to try to improve Jon Jones or are we going to sit there in the realization of Christ. That is the point."
Kate Buck's Nine-Year Journey
The Desperate Condition
"Most of you here know the story of my very good friend and very longtime friend Kate Buck. It is a matter of more than 60 years ago when se Kate Buck was given up to die. Materia Medica had no hope for her at all"
Nine Years of Struggle
"And Kate Buck had a very prosperous husband so that she could afford the best practitioners and the best teachers in Boston. And she had them. But for nine years, she lived on without a healing."
The Moment of Surrender
"And at that point, Kate says to herself, 'It can't be helped. I'm going. I might as well stop trying to be healed. I've done everything I can.' So, of these good practitioners and teachers, I think I'll spend my last weeks just trying to find out about God"
The Healing and Life of Service
"And the moment she gave up trying to be healed and look for God, she was healed. And Kate Buck remained with us until she was 96 years of age. And for more than 50 of those years, she was one of the finest Christian Science practitioners in the entire movement."
The Breech Birth Healing

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The Vision of Christ
"Christ is the only being and it was never conceived and it was never born and it will never die. There's only one being and that's Christ."
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The Middle Path Realization
"I'm in this middle here where I don't have a mother giving birth and a mother having a perfect birth. I'm in the middle here where there are no human mothers, where there aren't even spiritual mothers"
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The Physical Crisis
"I had the case of a young woman having her first child. She was a Christian Scientist and uh was admitted to the Christian Science Maternity Hospital outside of Los Angeles. And uh the doctor knew me personally, knew my work and admitted her even though I wasn't an authorized practitioner at that time. I was in the infinite way. And when it came to the delivery, they found that it was a breach. The child was turned wrong into. And they did all the things that material medicica does to turn the child around, but they couldn't make it turn."
Avoiding Human Intervention
No Human Advice
"The moment your thought goes to your patient in any human connection. The moment you start to give a patient human advice, whether they should change climates or whether they should sleep with the windows open or closed or whether they should change their food, from that moment on you are out of the middle path."
Divine Leading
"We have nothing to do with an individual's diet. They will be divinely led to eat the right things and drink the right things. They will even be divinely led if their food is of such poor quality that it isn't properly feeding."
Spiritual Indifference
"You will have patients say shall I give up smoking? Shall I give up drinking? Or I care. I don't care what you do. I'm not interested in your being a better human being. Not a bit."
Training in Spiritual Indifference
Spiritual Training
"Remember that it may be for a while a matter of training, a matter of training yourself to an utter indifference of the human picture while you stand on spiritual integrity uh while you stand on the Christthood of the individual"
No Miracles Needed
"that doesn't mean that as the temptation comes to you to believe that you have some sickness to overcome that you will not also be consciously rising wait a minute I'm not using God as a power to do something here I'm not turning to God for a miracle I am standing fast in the realization of in spiritual living We need no miracles in spiritual living. Harmony already is."
The Power of IS
"And that brings you back to that word is. It isn't such a difficult thing to be on the middle path. If you have the help of the word is because always if you are tempted to do something to improve the scene, you can come back. No, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. It's already is. Already is. Is is the only truth."
Being Versus Becoming
The False Teaching
"Now in the mental science days it was taught that being is becoming. Being can't be becoming being is is maybe coming to our awareness."
The Truth of IS
"So healing work really is constituted of the recognition of the Christthood of individual being which already is. Now you certainly don't need any god to make it so. You don't need God power to make it so. All you need is your own vision to behold Christ."
The Permanent Identity
"I am with you before Abraham. I am with you. I am with you unto the end of the world. This Christthood is a permanent identity. It is not one that someone can heal us of or make us into. Not even Jesus Christ coming to earth could make Christthood. Christthood was the established being."
Beyond Human Reformation

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My Kingdom Is Not of This World
"The only thing is that at this particular stage, our work is going a step beyond those in the fact that we are not concerned with mental causes for physical disease. We're not even concerned with moral causes for physical disease. We are not interested in changing humanit."
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Not a Judge or Divider
"We have now come to the point of the master's revelation where he says my kingdom is not of this world. Who made me a judge? over you who made me a divider. No, no, no. I am not going to get up an army and free you either from Rome or from the Hebrew church."
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Freedom in Christ
"You will not be freed from era. You will be freed in Christ. Once you are freed in Christ, you're not freed from it. That's why you can't free anyone. You can't free anyone from a bad marriage. And you can't free anyone from a bad job."
The Development of Spiritual Faculties
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Soul Faculties
"Fine. We must see clearly that the most important part of all our work is the meditation. The our entire existence can be built around meditation and the two great commandments of the master. These become our entire existence after a while. And the reason is this. What we learn is not learned so much through the mind as through the soul. In other words, definitely there are such things as spiritual faculties."
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Inner Consciousness
"Just as we have the human faculties, the five physical senses, so there are spiritual faculties, soul faculties they're called in the book, the infinite way. It is an inner consciousness, an inner awareness that discerns that which cannot be humanly known."
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Seeing the Invisible
"As for instance in that novel, uh those who saw that light around the glass or chalice, whatever it was, uh were seeing that which is invisible. In the same way, those who saw the risen Christ were seeing that which is invisible."
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Spiritual Discernment
"There was no physical visible Jesus walking on earth or everyone would have seen him. But there was the risen Christ. There was that which was raised from the tomb, but which only those of spiritual vision could discern."
Peter's Spiritual Recognition
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The Master's Question
"In the same way as The master asks, 'Who do men say that I am?' Well, a resurrected Hebrew prophet. It's what they say. It's what they believe. Who do ye say that I am?"
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Peter's Recognition
"Ah, Peter knows, 'Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.' Yes, but he answers, 'Flesh and blood hath not taught you this. Hath not told you this.'"
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Beyond Physical Senses
"In other words, you haven't known that through seeing me or hearing me or feeling or smelling or tasting me. But you have known this through the father within you. In other words, through your spiritual awareness, through your Christ consciousness, through your God consciousness."
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The Divine Presence
"Through that you have discerned that there is more to me than flesh and blood. You have penetrated through to the truth. that the Christ is my being. The Christ is that which is pouring forth this message and performing this mission."
The 500 Witnesses
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Spiritual Witnesses
"Well, it took great spiritual discernment for Peter to see that because how few of his day penetrated that outer vision and saw the master as he is. In the same way that only about 500 witnessed Jesus after the resurrection."
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Limited Vision
"Why? Out of all the multitudes, all the multitudes of those he healed and fed and taught, only about 500 bear witness to a resurrection. Only they had the spiritual vision to discern the man who is never born and the man who will never die."
Spiritual Practitioners' Consciousness
Human Vision
"Now all those who heal spiritually are of that same consciousness. Do you not see that as human beings we would sit here and look at the person with a fever or consumption or paralysis and we would see what everybody else sees. And we would say well there's nothing you can do about this except whatever the medical books say."
Spiritual Vision
"Ah but then as spiritual practitioners you sit there and say no you deny the evidence of the senses and whatever way you do it you finally arrive at the conviction Christ is uh man's only being. Christ is our only true ident. You rest in that and then afterwards see it fulfilled."
The Peace That Transcends Understanding
My Peace I Give Unto You
"Take the uh statement my kingdom is not of this world or my peace I give unto you. Now people read that over and over and over again. My peace I give unto you and probably they are thinking about the man Jesus who spoke it They say, 'Well, what good is it? He isn't here to give us that peace and that ends it.' And yet we come along and we say, 'Oh, my peace. I understand that doesn't mean this human sense of peace. That is something that transcends it.' You have caught with your inner vision the meaning that even the minister in the church more often than not fails to perceive that there is such a thing as a my peace. A piece that has nothing to do with anything. that is understood by peace on the human plane."
Not By Might Nor By Power
"In the same way as it is read, it is written not by might nor by power but by my spirit, say the Lord. And uh to the average reader reading with his mind, there is about as meaningless a statement as one could find. What do you mean not by might and not by power? When all that existence knows his might and power either physical or mental. Then you say well wait a minute I cannot use physical might in this matter or even legal might and I cannot use mental powers. What am I to do? Then something within says but by my spirit. Is it my spirit? Spirit of God."
David and Goliath Consciousness
"And then you're able to get quiet and let this my spirit take over and then you have the experience of David and Goliath and uh David says, 'But I come to you in the name of God without armor on.' No, he could not fit that physical armor on him. It just wouldn't fit his state of consciousness at all. And so he says, 'I go out without armor, but I come in the name of the Lord and in the name of the Lord he stands there just ready to be uh cut down and it doesn't happen"
Faith in the Silence
"there again you say are we stand in the presence of sin disease lack limitation fear infection contagion and we do not surround ourselves by might nor by power but just with a silence. And we really and truly have faith in that silence. Not just a blind faith. We have an awareness that if we attain a deep enough silence, the entire visible picture will change. And it does."
The Natural Man Cannot Know God
Paul's Truth
"Now that has all come to you through this inner vision, through this inner ability to discern that which humankind never will. The things of God are foolishness with men. The mortal man cannot know them. Paul goes cannot know the things of God at all."
Beyond Mental Learning
"And if ever there is a statement of Paul that is true, it is that very one that the natural man perceiveth not the things of God. And you might as well make up your mind of that that no matter how much truth you ever know through books, no matter how much truth you ever learn through teachers, you are never going to perceive the things of God."
Soul Consciousness Required
"Unless in a degree you do develop this soul consciousness, reveal, unfold, bring forth this inner vision that can see that which is invisible, hear that which is inaudible, and know that which is unknowable."
The Practice of Meditation
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Brief Periods
"Now, the reading helps that, the hearing helps that. Everything we do in the way of lecture work, class work, all it helps. But all these things are merely helps to the main factor which is the meditation. The meditation must accompany all of our reading and hearing."
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Quality Over Quantity
"And that's why I say meditation becomes a mental practice if it's prolonged. It would be far better to sit in meditation for two or three or four minutes. and then get up and go about our business than to sit for 2 or 3 hours."
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Avoiding Mental Activity
"Uh it is not possible at this period of our development. I'm speaking now as a general rule to sit for more than a few moments without the mental faculties coming into play again, thought coming in and uh that we must avoid."
Grace-Filled Meditation
Moments of Grace
"There comes a time when we can sit. There are times when we can sit sometimes a whole hour or two and be so lost in the spirit that it seems to us like 2 or 3 minutes It's only by looking at the clock that you find out that an hour or two or three has passed."
Not by Will
"But those experiences are not such that you can say I can do that at will. It is not possible to do that at will. It is only possible to do that by grace. You can force yourself. Many orientals force themselves to sit hours and hours and hours in meditation which isn't a communion with the spirit."
Opening the Inner Telephone
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Simple Acknowledgment
"Meditation does not necessarily mean getting messages or seeing lights or scenes. The meditation itself is an acknowledgement that I can in my own self do nothing and I'm sitting here now waiting for something greater than I to reveal itself."
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Opening the Way
"So the very act of doing this even for 1 second would be an act of meditation that would bear ultimately very rich fruit. It would be like lifting the telephone receiver and waiting for a message. Sooner or later, someone will come on and you'll receive the message."
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Continuous Availability
"Now, just by closing your eyes for a second and opening that inner ear, you have opened the way to this inner awareness. And then You may have no message that time. You may have no reaction, no feeling. But you have opened the way."
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Divine Timing
"And it may be while you're driving your car or eating your meal or taking your bath or sleeping that the message will come through. But you will be instantly aware of it. If you're asleep, it will awaken you. You have opened yourself to it. That's all that you need do."
Living in the Rhythm
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Continuous Line
"You need not wait for it to come unless there is some specific reason why you must have have that answer at this very second. But ordinarily that is not true and what we are doing is developing a line through to the soul at the center of us."
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Always Open
"Now after weeks months of this type of meditation the line is continuously open and from then on you are in some measure in a constant state a continuous state of meditation. In fact, you rarely leave it."
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Living in the Center
"It is somewhat like being here in the center, in a groove, in a rhythm, separate and apart from the world. And that is a more or less continuous state. As if you were living right out here in a rhythm. Out here is the rest of the world, but you're right here in the center."
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Christ Living the Life
"of it and uh supported by that rhythm. I catch the Paul statement. I live yet not I. Christ liveth my life. It's almost as if I weren't living it. It were living it and I were going along."
God Lives Man's Life
Divine Correspondence
"In one of our classes, it was brought to our attention this quotation of Suyan that uh uh man does not live his own life. God lives man's life. Man just goes along for the ride. And that is the feeling you get that you are just going along and that it is living your life. It functions for you. You sit to answer mail and it comes along with the right answers uh for it."
Divine Treatment
"You are to give a treatment and it comes along and gives you uh the right treatment. You are to make a decision but you never do make it. It makes the decision for you and you just accept the decision."
Divine Election of the Twelfth Disciple
"Very much like the disciples Judas had committed suicide and the 11 are left and they are to choose a 12th and then they pray, 'Father, show us whom thou hast chosen and then they just go along and cast their votes for the one that God has chosen.' How do they know? It's put right into their mind. That's all. It's the one name that comes to all of them unanimously."
Spiritual Election in Church Organization
Human vs. Spiritual Selection
"And so it is. We do not break our heads who to vote for. We learned that back in our church. organization days when we were electing readers or board members and wanting to be uh scientific or spiritual about it."
Divine Guidance in Action
"Instead of humanly deciding who we would like to see in the desk or on the board, we would sit in quietness and pretty soon the name would come. And if we really were in tune, that's who was elected. If we weren't in tune, it was just an evidence that personal sins had gotten in either with us or with the uh membership."
The Two Great Commandments
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Meditation as Foundation
"Now for us then the most important point is the development of our meditation because that is the development of our inner faculties and it is with our inner faculties that we discern truth right where appearances seem to be."
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Universal Truth
"The uh next part of our experience and that on which we build our experience of the two great commandments. The two commandments given us by the master both of which of course were taken from Hebrew scripture. One from the book of Exodus and the other from the book of Leviticus."
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Breaking Down Barriers
"The reason for the importance or rather The importance of knowing this is that we should all be very familiar with the fact that truth is universal just as we should all know that uh the uh do unto others as you would have others do unto you uh goes back 3500 years before the master."
Universal Religion for World Peace

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Truth is Universal
"We should all know that because we should come to the realization that all real truth all spiritual truth is is not Hebrew, is not Jewish, is not Christian, but is universal. And uh even before Abraham was all true, real universal truth was."
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Toynbee's Vision
"Uh in uh his lectures on the present world conditions, Mr. Toyinby tells us that there is a way to stop this destruction of civilization and that way is if new religion could be brought into the world that would be the same for the Jew and the Greek, the bond and the free."
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One Universal God
"In other words, if a religion could be conceived so universal, that no one would say my religion or bar somebody from it, have a universal god, the moment we would come into that realization, freedom would be."
Incorporating These Principles into Daily Spiritual Life
Establish Regular Brief Meditations
Practice 2-4 minute meditation periods throughout the day, opening yourself to divine guidance rather than seeking specific outcomes. Remember: "It would be far better to have 10 periods a day of 2 minutes each than to have one period of 10 hours."
Develop the Middle Path Vision
When faced with human problems or requests for help, train yourself to see beyond the human picture to Christ as the only true identity. Ask: "Am I trying to improve a human being, or am I recognizing Christ?" Practice spiritual indifference to human good and bad while maintaining recognition of divine perfection.
Live from "IS" Consciousness
Throughout your day, return to the word "IS" - recognizing that harmony, wholeness, and Christ identity already exist. Avoid the temptation to make things become better and instead rest in what already IS. Let Christ live your life rather than trying to live it yourself.
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Recognize Universal Truth
Apply the two great commandments - acknowledging only one God as the creative principle, and seeing all beings as expressions of this one divine Life. Practice seeing the same Christ identity in saint and sinner alike, maintaining the vision that "there's only one son of God, and that's Christ" in infinite form and variety.
The ultimate goal is to develop such continuous spiritual awareness that you live in a constant state of meditation, where divine consciousness lives your life and makes all decisions through you. This transforms not only your healing work but your entire existence into a demonstration of Christ consciousness.