Edgar Cayce’s Enlightenment

Newspaper headlines did not affect Edgar as offers of fame and large sums of money came.  Although he never earned more than a modest living at best, he turned down all efforts by others to commercialize on the readings.  Desperately poor at times, he once flatly refused an offer of $1,000 a day to go on the stage.  Simple in his tastes, he was an expert fisherman and a horrible golfer.  

Edgar Cayce – From his 14 million words he spoke in the Superior Condition

Edgar Cayce – Edgar Cayce:Who Was This Man? – Answers To Great Questions Of Life – Our Origins:Where Did We Come From? – Evolution:Who Are We? – The Universe:How Did It Get Here? – Religion:Is It True? – Reincarnation – Does it really happen? – Jesus Christ:Who Is This Man? – The Future:What lies beyond? – The Planets:What Are These Dimensions? – Your Body:How Is Your Next Destination Determined? – Meditation:Is It Connecting With The Afterlife? – Prayer:Is It Talking to God? – Dreams:Are They A Gateway To The Spirit World? – The Book of Revelation:What are its secrets? – The Mysteries:What are these religions about? – Astrology:What Is The Christian Perspective? – The Readings:What Else Did Cayce Say?

Edgar Cayce – Wisdom

 Answers To Great Questions Of Life

The afterlife was revealed to Edgar Cayce (pronounced “Casey”) (1877-1945), a man who had amazing near death-like revelations.  He was America’s most documented clairvoyant and spiritualist. In 1910, the New York Times carried two pages of headlines and pictures; and, he was declared the “World’s Most Mysterious Man.”  In 1954, the University of Chicago accepted a Ph.D. thesis based on a study of his life and work.  He is also considered to be the father of holistic medicine.  The following are his revealed answers to the major questions of life.

 Our Origins – Where Did We Come From? 

In the beginning, God desired to express Himself, and He desired  companionship.  Therefore, God created the universe and souls.  Every  soul that exists in life was created then and none has been made since.

After the creation of the universe, certain souls became more concerned  with, and aware of, their own wills and creations rather than God’s.  This resulted in a rebellion where souls left the presence of God.  This was the fall in spirit, the revolt of the angels.

All souls were created with a free will and God did nothing to curb it; however a soul acted, the soul had to act within Him; by whatever route, the soul had to eventually return to Him.  When a soul returns to God it becomes aware of itself not only as a part of God, but as a part of every other soul, and everything.

The fallen souls mingled with the universe and became a part of it.  Our solar system attracted souls and the earth came into their path.  Of the souls God created, only a comparative few have come into the experience of our solar system, though many have gone through or are going through a similar entanglement in other solar systems in the universe.

A way of escape was prepared for the souls entangled in our solar system.  On earth, an animal was chosen to be a vehicle for the evolution of the soul.  A species of ape had evolved into a form that most nearly approached the necessary pattern.  Souls descended on these apes and influenced them to move toward a different goal from the simple one they had been pursuing.  They came down out of the trees, built fires, made tools, lived in communities, and began to communicate with each other.  Swiftly, even as man measures time, they lost their animal look, shed bodily hair, and took on refinements of manner and habit.

Then the souls inhabited the bodies of the apes and earth had a new inhabitant: man, having three-fold life (physical, mental, and spiritual).  He appeared as a consciousness within an animal, a consciousness which was felt on the earth in five different places at the same time, as the five races (red, yellow, black, white, and brown).

 Evolution – Who Are We?

God’s plan for the fallen soul was a series of earth lives, reincarnations through the process of evolution, interlaced with periods of dwelling in other dimensions of consciousness as spirit forms within our solar system.  Each of the solar systems in the universe provides an opportunity for development, advancement, and growth toward the ideal of complete companionship with God – the position of co-creator in the vast system of universal mind.

The planets of our solar system represent the dimensions of consciousness of the system of universal mind – its consciousness as a whole.  There are nine dimensions to the consciousness of the solar system.  The earth, the third planet from the sun, is the third dimension.  Our sun is as an atom in the universe of stars.  The planets are as electrons with their own dimension of energy around the nucleus of the sun.

This process of evolution and reincarnation continues until every thought and every action of the physical body is in accord with the plan originally laid out for the soul.  This conquest of the physical body could not be attained until there was perfection in the other dimensions of consciousness of the solar system, for these made up, with the earth, the total expression of our sun and its

planets, the total expression of the mind of God.  Whichever state of consciousness the soul assumed became the focal point of activity.  The other planes of consciousness receded to the position of urges and influences.  When the body could be controlled so that the soul was free from the influences of the flesh – it’s cycle of earth lives ended and the soul could go on to higher levels in the universe.  However, life after life, souls descended, gravitized, more and more into earthiness, becoming less aware of their own soul, their subconscious minds.  Finally man was left with a conscious mind separated from his subconscious mind.  The subconscious mind influenced the conscious mind like a body in a suit of clothes.  Only in sleep and death is it disrobed.

As this separation of the subconscious mind from the conscious mind continued, man remembered his true self only in dreams, in stories handed down from one generation to another.  The arts and sciences were born, brought to earth by the incoming souls, and gradually their heavenly source was forgotten.  Downwardly, man went from heavenly knowledge to revealed religions, philosophy and theology, until man only believed what he could see and feel and prove with his conscious mind.  Intellect, roughly speaking, is from the stars:  it is the mind of the soul, conditioned by its previous experience in creation outside the solar system, and dimmed or brightened by its recent experiences on earth. 

 The Universe – How Did It Get Here?

The universe was built with the tools which man calls music, arithmetic, and geometry: harmony, system, and balance.  The building blocks were all of the same material, which man calls the life essence.  It was a power sent out from God, a primary ray, as man thinks of it, which by changing the length of its wave and the rate of its vibration became a pattern of differing forms, substance, and movement.  This created the law of diversity which supplied endless designs for the pattern.  God played on this law of diversity as a person plays on a piano, producing melodies and arranging them in a symphony.

Each design carried within it, inherently, the plan of its evolution, which was to be accomplished by movement, growth, or, as man calls it, change.  The sounds of several notes unite to make a chord; chords in turn become phrases; phrases become melodies; melodies intermingle and move back and forth, across and between and around each other, to make a symphony.

Everything moved, changed, and assumed its design in various states of form and substance.  Activity was begun and maintained by the law of attraction and repulsion: positive and negative, attracting each other and repelling themselves, maintained the form and action of all things.

All this was a part of God, an expression of His thought.  Mind was the force which propelled and perpetuated it: mind did everything God imagined; everything that came into being was an aspect, a posture, of mind.

Thus a new individual, issuing from and dependent upon God, but aware of an existence apart from Him, came into being.  To the new individual there was given the power to choose and direct its own activity; without this freedom it would remain a part of the individuality of God.  Mind, issuing as a force from God, would naturally fulfill His thoughts, unless directed otherwise.  The power to do this – to direct otherwise the force of mind – is what man calls his free will.  The record of this free will is the soul.  The soul was the greatest thing God made.  The fact that man’s body is a speck of dust on a small planet leads to the illusion that man himself is a small creation.  The measure of the soul is the limitless activity of mind and the grandeur of imagination.  Our souls are as sparks from the One soul of God.  The first thought which it generated of itself, the first diversion of mind force from its normal path, was the beginning of the soul.  Thus the soul consisted of two states of consciousness: that of the spirit, bearing a knowledge of its identity with God (the subconscious mind), and that of the new individual (the conscious mind), bearing a knowledge of everything it experienced.

God is aware of everything that happens in the universe and is aware of the consciousness of each individual.  When the desire of will was no longer different from the thought of God, the soul would return to God.  Thus the return of the soul is the return of the image to that which imagined it, and the subconsciousness of an individual, its soul record, could not be destroyed without destroying part of God Himself.  What is destroyed is the ego – the desire to do other than the will of God.  When the soul returns to God the ego is voluntarily relinquished; this is the symbology of the crucifixion of Christ. 

 Religion – Is It True?

Every soul was created, in Biblical terms, as an angel from heaven.  Every soul that goes through life was created at the time the universe was created.  Sometime afterward, a rebellion began where souls left the Light and presence of God.  This is what the Bible refers to as the fall of one third of the angels from heaven.  This collective force of rebellion is what the Bible refers to as Satan.

Over time, the fallen souls mingled with the universe and became a part of it.  As they became more entangled with matter, it became increasingly difficult to live as pure spiritual beings.  As mentioned earlier, the souls trapped on earth inhabited the bodies of a species of apes who later evolved into homo sapiens.  The souls were now trapped in these bodies and could only be permanently free from them at the time of death.

The race of man was fostered by a soul which had completed its experience of creation and returned to God, becoming a companion to Him and a cocreator.  This is the soul known as the Christ, the three dimensional manifestation of God.  The Christ is Leader of the unfallen Sons of God.

The Christ soul wanted to rescue the souls who fell and were trapped on earth.  After supervising the first influx of souls to earth, the Christ soul took form himself as a man from time to time, to act as a leader for the people.  The Christ soul appeared as the man the Bible refers to as Adam.  Adam was not the first man created to live on earth.  He was the first man to receive the Christ Spirit, and thus becoming the first Son of God and man.

When Adam received the knowledge of good and evil (which was necessary for spiritually evolved souls to become Christ-like), the peaceful animal life of man ended.  Through the Christ soul, new souls could enter the earth dimension for spiritual and physical evolution.

The Christ soul saved mankind.  The Christ soul, besides becoming Adam, also took on flesh to become Enoch and Melchizedek, to teach and lead.  Enoch and Melchizedek were not born and did not die.  The Christ soul realized after these assumptions of flesh that it was necessary to set a pattern for man, to show mankind the way back to God, and to pay the karmic debt for mankind’s sins.  He assumed this task, and was born to a virgin as Jesus, the three dimensional manifestation of God on earth – the Trinity.  Our goal is to become as Christ’s three dimensional likeness: body, mind, and soul: the body (as of the Father), mind (as of the Son), and soul (as of the Spirit of God).  He, Jesus, triumphant over death and the flesh, laid down the ego of the will, accepted the crucifixion, and returned to heaven showing mankind the way back to God.  Jesus paid the karmic debt for receiving the knowledge of good and evil as Adam, because this knowledge, while ultimately bringing redemption and righteousness, also indirectly brought sin.  This triumph over death and the body made spiritual perfection through evolution possible for other souls trapped in flesh.  Jesus is the pattern we are to follow.  Through Jesus (the Spirit of God, love) we can be set free from the earth and it’s desires and return to God. 

 Reincarnation – Does it really happen?

Reincarnation is the story of physical and spiritual evolution.  The plan for the soul was a cycle of experiences in the solar system in which the new individual would come to know creation in all its aspects, at the discretion of will.  The cycle would be completed when the desire of will was no longer different from the thought of God.  The consciousness of the new individual would then merge with its spiritual consciousness of identity with God, and the soul would return to its source as the companion it was intended to be.

The earth is an expression of divine mind with its own laws, its own plan, its own evolution.  The law of karma, the law revealed to the ancient Hebrews, is the law of cause and effect, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.  Unpaid debts (sins) incurred in the flesh must be met in the flesh, and reincarnation is the result.  This same law not only applies to individuals, but also to groups of people as they act together.  There is karma for families, for tribes, for races, for nations.  When the souls who committed a war in a previous lifetime reincarnate to a nation for a new lifetime, a war will be committed upon that nation.  Only when victory is dispensed by a nation with justice and mercy, will the karma of war be lifted from them.

Every person’s life is shaped to some extent by karma: his own, that of his associates and loved ones, that of his nation and race, and that of the world itself.  It is what the person does about these influences and urges, how he reacts to them, that makes a difference in his soul development.  Because of karma some things are more probable than others, but so long as one is free in God anything is possible.

Thus free will and predestination coexist in a person.  His past experiences limit him in probability, and incline him in certain directions, but free will from God can always draw the sword from the stone.

This law of karma, of reincarnation, was superceded by a new and greater law brought by Christ.  This is the law of grace which frees souls from the consequences of karma and thus, reincarnation. 

 Jesus Christ – Who Is This Man?

In the beginning God “moved,” God who from the beginning could be called multiple, for “in the beginning was the Word, the Word was God, the Word was with God.”  As God moved, souls – portions of Himself – came into being according to the Cayce readings.  Therefore, there was a “time” when souls, as separate consciousness from God, was not separate.  This includes all souls, both living and dead, and all were created in the beginning.  All souls preexisted, having their origin in God the Father, but all existed in a spiritual realm prior to coming into the world to live many earth lives.  The origins of sin, according to Cayce, lay in souls seeking expression of themselves outside of the plan or the way in which God had expressed.

Jesus the Christ, according to the Cayce readings, is the central instrument of God to make it possible for all souls to fulfill the original purpose of their creation.  Cayce affirms the Godhead to be three-dimensional, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, when viewed from the level of earth consciousness, which itself is a “three-dimensional plane in one.”  The Godhead in Its multiplicity can be perceived as more complex than three-dimensional when viewed from the perspective of higher levels of consciousness.  Nevertheless, the Christ, whether one speaks of the Godhead as three-dimensional or multidimensional, is seen as an essential part of the Godhead.  Indeed, Cayce says the Body of Christ is the Father, the Mind of Christ is the Son, and the Spirit of Christ is the Holy Spirit.

Jesus, who became the Christ, the Messiah, is also a man – specifically, a soul created with other souls in the beginning and, like them, a part of God’s Universal Consciousness.  This is not to say that Christ is a created being.  In the Cayce readings the Christ is integrally one with the Father.  The union of the Christ and the man Jesus constituted, according to the readings, a unique divine-human unity, although this relationship is properly the ultimate goal of all entities and is spiritually possible for all.  Cayce affirms that there seemed to be two wills – divine and human – in Jesus Christ.  Cayce flat out states that Jesus was also the first Adam of Genesis.

It is well known that the apostle Paul wrote of Adam as “a type of the one who was to come” (Rom 5:14) and drew between Adam and Christ a parallel that was also a contrast: “The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” (1 Cor 15:45).  Christ is thus seen as the last Adam, the “one man” who by his obedience undoes the results of the disobedience of the first (Rom 5:12-21).  Jesus Christ recapitulated the stages of Adam’s fall, but in reverse order and quality. It is understandable how shocking this statement of Cayce’s is to most fundamental Christians, that Jesus whom they have always believed to be sinless had been not only guilty of sin, but the very person who has been traditionally regarded as the author of sin on the human level.  However, Cayce in no way states that Jesus as the Christ was guilty of any sin of any kind.  At that stage of His personal and cosmic development His obedience was flawless, His relationship with the Father perfect.  In Cayce’s words: “the perfect relationship to the Creative Forces or God, the Father – which the man Jesus attained when He gave of Himself to the world, that through Him, by and in Him, each entity might come to know the true relationship with the Father.”

The Cayce readings, however, go on to speak of the singular appropriateness of Adam finally emerging as Jesus, the man, to become the Savior of the world, the Christ.  It must also be noted that sin did not begin with Adam, according to Cayce, but it had its origins in spiritual realms before even the creation of the earth.  We can therefore assume that this was Adam’s redemptive intent all along, that is, to be savior of the world.

The perception that Jesus had previous human incarnations did not originate with Edgar Cayce.  For example, the early Jewish Christian group known as the Ebionites taught that the Spirit had come as Adam and later reincarnated as Jesus. Other Jewish Christian groups such as the Elkasaites and Nazarites also believed this.  The Clementine Homilies, an early Christian document, also taught many incarnations of Jesus. According to Cayce, the incarnations were as follows: Adam, Enoch, Melchizedek, Joseph, Joshua, Jeshua (the scribe chiefly responsible for forming the Hebrew Bible according to Cayce) and finally Jesus.

How will Jesus come again?  The Cayce readings affirm the second coming of Jesus: “He shall come as you have seen Him go, in the body He occupied in Galilee.”  So Cayce expects a literal return in body from the sky in the same manner He departed.  Cayce often stated in his readings that “the day of the Lord is indeed at hand”. When asked how soon the second coming will be Cayce responded: “When those that are His have made the way clear, passable, for Him to come.” 

  The Future – What lies beyond?

All of us, like the prodigal son, are spiritual beings who have come from the Father, have gone astray of our own choice and are on a journey of return.  Each of us is a pilgrim on the spiritual path.  As spiritual beings, we not only existed before our entry into the earth plane, but we were, in previous times, able to move through many dimensions and planes.  Although our present assignment seems to be on the earth in a three-dimensional existence, the cycle of the undeveloped soul’s experience relates more to the entire solar system, not just in the earth plane.  The planets, the sun and moon, and the dimensions of existence they reside in, have an important influence on man’s spiritual development as taught by the ancient religious science of astrology, such as practised by the Magi, the Wise Men of the Bible.  They discovered the time of the birth of Christ by studying the position of the stars.  These other dimensions may often be experienced by souls between earth lives, in dreams, through meditation or hypnosis.

As for the future of mankind, shortly after the year 2000 A.D., Christ will manifest himself to the world once again to usher in a new era, a one thousand year period of world peace and righteousness, the age of Aquarius (the water-bearer).  The end of the Age of Pisces (the fish, the symbol for the Christian church) is upon us.  But before peace and righteousness comes, the earth will undergo catastrophic disasters upon civilization.  These disasters will force mankind to once again rely on nature, God, and other people to create harmony and stop all war, evilness, and end the continuing desecration of this planet.  As in the days of the dinosaurs, the days of Atlantis, and the days of Noah, civilization also experiences a process of evolutionary renewal from time to time that leads to perfection.  The earth has a mind of its own and it cleanses itself of impurities as a single organism does.

Each soul came to earth not by chance, but through the grace, the mercy, of a loving Father; that the soul may, through its own choice, work out those faults which prevent its communion and at-onement with God. 

 The Planets – What Are These Dimensions?

Our present existence on Earth is three dimensional.  There is time, space, and motion.  We think of space in terms of height, length, and width; time as past, present, and future.  We speak of ourselves as having physical, mental, and spiritual life.  We understand the dimensions of man’s awareness to be conscious, subconscious, and superconscious; the world about us as mineral, plant, and animal.  The Bible refers to Divinity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

According to Cayce’s revelations, our experience relates more to the entire solar system and not just the three dimensions of Earth.  The solar system has nine dimensions or planes of consciousness, of which Earth represents three.  Other dimensions of consciousness are associated with other planets.  There is not only incarnation and reincarnation in the Earth plane, but experiences in other planes between incarnations as well.  These experiences are related to the dimension symbolized by the planet.  Cayce did not give a complete description of them; however, the following incomplete chart was derived from his revelations.  Each planet in our solar system has a different major influence by which certain lessons are to be learned and for which we are tested.  They are:

Dimension 2 — MERCURY – of the Mind

Dimension 4 — VENUS —— of Love

Dimension 3 — EARTH —— of the Flesh

Dimension ? — MARS ——– of Wrath (Madness)

Dimension 7 — JUPITER —- of Strength

Dimension 1 — SATURN —– of Woe

Dimension 8 — URANUS —– of the Psyche

Dimension ? — NEPTUNE — of the Mystic

Dimension ? — PLUTO ——- of the Consciousness

Our sun is like an atom in the universe of stars.  Just as each atom has many higher and lower energy levels, so our solar system has them as well.  For an electron to escape from an energy level of an atom, it must make a quantum leap to a higher energy level.  Once the electron has broken free from the atomic forces, it can journey on to other locations.  The same is true for a soul.  For a soul to escape from the lower planes of consciousness, the soul must rise to higher planes of consciousness.  The higher the soul travels, the freer it is from the heavier carnal forces and the soul can journey on to higher places in the universe.

 Your Body – How Is Your Next Destination Determined?

The Kingdom of heaven is within you, said Jesus.  Your body is a temple for the Spirit of God.  On this earth plane, a person is influenced by their flesh and, in many ways, the influence of the flesh determines a person’s level of spiritual development.   According to Cayce and the Eastern religions, within your body are seven spiritual centers. Through these spiritual centers, our spiritual force finds a means of expression.

Our bodies are like a miniature solar system with our hearts performing the function of the sun, the center of the system.  The seven spiritual centers are the seven endocrine glands which are the Pituitary gland (the “third eye”), the Pineal gland, the Thyroid, the Thymus, the Adrenal glands, the Lyden gland, and finally the sexual gland (the testes or ovaries). These glands are known by science to be the emotional and motivational centers of the body.  They act especially in responses to the imaginative forces of the mind.  For example, when you get angry, the Adrenals secrete.  The activity of the sexual glands is directly related to sexual motivation. Science knows that the Pituitary is the master gland of the body.  It’s secretions have a direct and coordinating effect on all the other glands. According to Cayce and the Eastern religions, each spiritual center is connected to a different plane of spiritual consciousness.  The lowest spiritual center, the sexual glands, is influenced by the lowest plane of consciousness.  The Pituitary gland is influenced by the highest plane of consciousness.  The plane of consciousness one travels to upon death is generally determined by the spiritual center that has the greater influence in a person’s life.  The following is a chart showing how these spiritual centers and the planes of consciousness go together. It begins with the highest level of consciousness and ends with the lowest level.

JUPITER —- the plane of Strength — Pituitary gland

MERCURY – the plane of Mind ——- Pineal gland

URANUS —- the plane of Psyche —– Thyroid gland

VENUS ——- the plane of Love ——- Thymus gland

MARS ——– the plane of Anger —— Adrenal glands

NEPTUNE — the plane of Mysticism – Lyden gland

SATURN —– the plane of Woes ——- Sex glands

The energy of the sexual glands, used wholly on the sexual level and without control, may bring sexual perversions and unbridled sensuality. If this spiritual center is the most influential in a person’s life, at  death the spirit may travel to the corresponding spiritual plane of Saturn, the plane of Woes, according to Cayce. The Lyden gland, located above the sexual gland, is the starting point of the soul’s activity.  It is the door through which the soul may go on to higher planes of consciousness. The corresponding spiritual plane for this spiritual center is the plane of Neptune, the plane  of Mysticism.

The Adrenal glands are located above the kidneys.  We are actively aware of this center in times of stress, when it pours adrenalin into the blood stream to aid us in fighting or fleeing.  The Adrenals are also the storehouse of our emotional karma according to Cayce.  From this center comes the negative energy of anger and hatred.  If this spiritual center is the most influential spiritual center before death, the spirit may travel to the corresponding plane of Mars, the plane of Anger.

The Thymus gland is found behind the heart in the solar plexus area of the chest.  Since the Thymus is related to the heart it is associated with love.  Love opens all doors.  At this center, love is awakened, bringing with it consideration, unselfishness, sincerity and honesty.  It’s corresponding plane is Venus, the plane of Love.

The Thyroid, located in the throat, is related to will-power.  From the misuse of the will for selfish and domineering ends, may come the condition known as hyper-thyroidism.  When little effort is made to the will at all, the opposite may occur, an imbalance known as hypo-thyroidism.  It is worthy of note that in some cases where there has been a growth on the Thyroid, a degree of clairvoyance or telepathy has developed.  The energy released upon the Thyroid opens the door into the psychic realms of consciousness, the plane of Uranus, the plane of  the Psyche.

The Pineal gland is situated a little above the Pituitary and is the “Mind of Christ” center.  When this center has been truly awakened, one may experience spiritual holy communion.  It is at this center that the mind of the soul meets the Holy Spirit.  This center, when stimulated daily through meditation, can bring seership or prophecy. It’s corresponding plane of consciousnes is the plane of Mercury, the plane of Mind.

The Pituitary is the master gland of the body.  It is situated between and behind the eyes in the brain, acting as the “third eye” of ancient mysticism. It is through the Pituitary, the highest spiritual center, that ultimate awakening comes.  It is through the energy of the Pituitary that one may enter the very presence of God through meditation and prayer. It’s corresponding spiritual plane is Jupiter, the plane of Strength.

The Kingdom of heaven is truly within us and our bodies are temples for the Holy Spirit.  We seek God and His Kingdom by looking within ourselves. Through meditation and prayer, one can unlock the doors to the many dimensions, the many mansions, of God’s Kingdom.  But the door must first be unlocked here on this earth plane, the plane of the flesh.

In interpreting the Book of Revelation in the Bible, Cayce made some astonishing statements.  In the beginning chapters in Revelation, John sees a vision of a book with seven seals.  This book symbolizes John’s body with the seven spiritual centers.  In the vision, John weeps as he realizes that no one in heaven or earth is worthy to open the seals of the book.  However, there appears a Lamb, the Christ, with seven eyes, who opens the seven seals one by one.  This sequence of events in the vision is extremely important and instructive for us in the initial stages of our awakening.  The awareness that no one is worthy enough to open these seals except Christ, should indicate to us that no attempt to open these centers, whether by drugs, hypnosis, breathing exercises, or other specialized meditation or inner awareness techniques, should be made unless the seeker has firmly set his spiritual ideals and is so directed by the spirit within.  The seven eyes of the Lamb symbolize the seven spiritual centers.  They are the organs of perception through which we may become aware of other planes and dimensions in the same way that our commonly known five senses are organs of perception of our earth experience.

Although we have learned to think of God as One or Triune, the Revelation speaks repeatedly of the seven spirits of God.  This expression suggests seven different functions of the Divine Spirit.  Thus we, as children of God made in His image, contain within us the corresponding spiritual sensory centers, which give us the potential of becoming aware of the seven aspects of the Divine.

The body is the temple of the living God both as the place where we may meet Him and as an instrument of awareness through which we may attune to Him.  As an instrument for attunement, the endocrine glands serve as points of contact between the Spirit and the body.  These centers are the transformers of the One Force of Spirit into physical consciousness and manifestation.  The functioning of these centers is, in turn, dependent primarily upon the quality of motivation or ideal chosen and dwelt upon by the imaginative forces of the mind. 

 Meditation – Is It Connecting With The Afterlife?

Prayer is speaking to God and meditation is listening to God.  Mastering the technique of meditation is not easy.  There are three keys necessary to succeed in meditation.  The three keys to this door of communication with God are sincerity, enthusiasm and perseverance.

As for sincerity, ask yourself these questions: Do I really know who and what God is?  Do I know Him personally as a loving Father, or do I just know about Him?  More important, does He know me?  Are we on speaking terms, or do we just nod occasionally?  If we find ourselves answering in the negative to these questions, we may begin to realize how greatly we need Him.  His promise has ever been that if we believe, live by His laws, He will aid us swiftly when we call, no matter where we happen to be.

Enthusiasm is important because it is an inner fire, an inner light seeking its own source.  In Webster’s dictionary, in  origins of the Greek word “enthusiasm” meant to be “inspired, or possessed by a god.”  In meditation, this inner fire stimulates every cell of the body and every reflex of the brain to listen.  How do we evoke enthusiasm for our search for God?  By first examining those people who, from the beginning of time, have found Him. The Bible tells of man’s experiences with God.  Studying it in conjunction with efforts at meditation and prayer awakens the necessary enthusiasm to begin.

Perseverance is perhaps the most difficult key.  We need to keep on, day after day, in the effort to re-establish our communion.  When we first attempt to harness the thoughts, to control the body, to sit still, we realize just how much the body controls us, mind and spirit.

The purification and control of the spiritual body takes place within the endocrine glands, under the direction of the mind.  The Cayce readings and modern science concur that constructive thoughts and emotions release healing hormones into the body and mind.  But the Cayce readings go further. They suggest that the endocrine glands are the spiritual centers of the body and that through them our spiritual forces find means of expression. Meditation is a key to opening these spiritual centers.

These centers are the gonads, the lyden cells, the adrenals, the thymus, the thyroid, the pineal and the pituitary glands.  The proper application of the energies illuminates them, transforming the individual into a light in the world.

Ideals enter the mind when led by the spirit.  The Cayce readings remind us over and over again that mind is the builder, led by the spirit we are entertaining, the spirit of God or the spirit of the devil – self. What one thinks and eats, one  becomes.

Spiritual cleansing begins when the mind is in accord with His spirit. It is across the bridge of the mind that we pass, as we come to know God. Once a soul sets for itself an ideal which is spiritual in essence, every cell in the body is made aware of this and changes begin to take place. Our seven spiritual centers become the points of contact with the Divine within; thus we experience a stepping-up of activity in all these centers. We have redirected the use of this energy to its highest function.  A refining process has taken place in the body, a lifting of the rate of vibration; these centers now disseminate their energies and hormones to the entire body.

As the individual sits in meditation, his mind focused on an affirmation (an idea), spiritual energy begins to move upward from the gonads.  Usually, at this point, a pulsation may be felt at the end of the spine. If the spiritual force has been able to rise unhindered and undefiled to the pineal and pituitary, one may experience an incandescence as if the whole body had been filled with light and become transparent.

It is at the pineal center that we gradually become oriented to the Christ-presence, where we may even receive the mind of Christ, depending on the degree of the attunement.

This force then flows into the pituitary, from whence, being now in purified form, it flows downward, cleansing and strengthening body and mind.

And Jesus also said, “He that believes on me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38) The movement of these spiritual forces in meditation are the “rivers of living water.”

The more we become able to still the conscious mind, the more trouble we can expect from the subconscious mind, for it is the conscious mind of the soul.  It, too, must be purified.  We have stimulated this area of the mind as a result of the ideal we have upheld; attitudes and thoughts previously concealed in the subconscious rise to the surface for examination.  Symbols and old familiar scenes begin to flash before us like pictures on a screen.  However, this is still only the beginning of meditation.  We should not dwell too long on these pictures but press on to the silence.  In other words, we must return attention to the affirmation.

We may at this point be fascinated by the many faces appearing, or numerous pairs of eyes staring.  We may even hear our names called; we may feel as if we were in the midst of a crowd, listening to chatter and laughter.  We must not stop there, for we are not yet in real meditation. Of course, it is fascinating at first, for it is an entirely new experience.  The sounds, the voices, the pictures, the eyes and faces may all belong to souls already in the beyond who, having seen the light pouring through the open door (the spiritual center), have been attracted. It is much akin to the sensation of looking through a strange keyhole, only to see another eye looking back.  Intriguing, perhaps, but neither stands to gain much from such a restricted encounter.

We must leave this entertainment behind and “press on to the mark of the high calling,” His mark, the superconscious, the Christ Consciousness, the “hill of the Lord.”

Spiritual height is reached by attunement to the Creative Forces in meditation.  The release of energy should never be forced by such methods as exercise, or holding the breath, or by focusing one’s mind on a special center, or by willing the center to open.  When meditation is properly approached, these centers will open voluntarily.  The knowledge, power and illumination of the soul which accompany this opening will then be concentrated on the good of others and not to one’s own misdoing.

The opening of the centers should come only as a result of spiritual growth, not through any abnormal means.  Unless the power released is used to express His spirit with and for others, it will but inflame our lower natures.

The glands of reproduction are the reservoirs of the life force.  They house the creative energy of the body.  As the individual sits in silence, having lifted his mind by use of the Lord’s Prayer (an excellent affirmation), creative energy is released at this level.  This energy now carries the stamp of the Divine, because both the purpose and the thought which released it were holy.

The lyden gland, control-center of the soul’s activity, opens its doors to this energy, enabling the mind of the soul – the subconscious – to rise to the pineal, seat of the Christ Consciousness.  This energy is then transmitted to the other centers of the body by means of the pituitary. As it passes through the centers, it illuminates them.

Meditation brings an increase in vigor and improved health.  An expansion of consciousness is achieved, and with this expansion comes the realization that we are in eternity now.  The realization dawns that indeed there is no death.  The only real death is the separation in consciousness of the soul from God.  When this has been overcome there is no death, for consciousness is continuous in whatever plane one manifests. “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” (John 14:2)  These “mansions” of God are levels of consciousness.  Where is consciousness?  Within the bodies we now occupy, wherever we are.   “For you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and  they shall be my people.” (2 Cor 6:16)

Through meditation, we may become aware of these other planes of consciousness as in dreams.  Therefore, whether we are on this earth, or in another dimension, the “house of the Lord” is the shell which we occupy.  For while God wills that no soul shall perish, He will not force man to seek Him.

As E. Stanley Jones wrote, the purpose of religion is not so much to get us into heaven, or to keep us out of hell, but to put a little bit of heaven into us, and take the hell out of us.  This has always been the greatest responsibility of the church.  Surely, meditation is one of the direct approaches to this end. 

 Prayer – Is It Talking to God?

Meditation does not lessen the need for prayer, because it does not take the place of prayer.  Prayer is a mental activity on our part addressed to God.  Meditation is a listening state so that we may hear God speak to us.

Prayer comes before meditation, before the affirmation; and we may pray, if need be, all day long as we go about our daily work.  Jesus found it necessary at times to pray for long periods.  Certainly prayer should be a constant activity of the religious heart.

The Edgar Cayce readings remind us that “he that would know the way must be oft in prayer.”

There are many types of prayer.  Unfortunately the most common one is the “gimme” prayer, wherein we beg God for favors.  Is this wrong?  Not for some people.  For prayer, the art of prayer, is an ever-growing experience.  When there is an acceptance of God’s presence, one knows that He will supply all that is truly needed to fulfill one’s purpose in life.

The art of visualization, so common today as a form of prayer, is another type of the “gimme” prayer.  We want to make sure that He knows exactly what we want, so we send Him “pictures” of it.  If we are going to tell God that we know what is best for ourselves what is the point in praying in the first place?

Jesus prayed, “Not my will, but Thine be done.”  The enlightened soul relegates the “gimme” prayer to the nursery toy box, and turns to the prayer of thanksgiving, of adoration, of petition for the woes of others, always adding, “Thy will be done.”

The Cayce readings tell us that the daily prayer of Jesus was, “Others, Lord, others.”  From this it is self-evident that the prayers of supplication of the awakened soul deal primarily with the needs of others. The more we pray for others, the more we gain in the power to pray, and the more are we ourselves blessed.  For how can we sincerely pray for another, and not be praying for ourselves, too?

Asking God for forgiveness shows proper repentance for wrongs committed, but unless those wrongs are righted by our own conscious effort, we shall never feel forgiven.

We may pray for guidance, but if we are not trying to do what we think is right, will He hear us?  Yes, but we may not hear Him.  As the Bible tells us, an unrepented sin seals our ears to the voice of God.

May we pray to escape further trials and tribulations?  Certainly. Jesus did; but when He knew that He had to die on the cross to fulfill His purpose, He accepted it unfalteringly.

God does not wish to see us suffer; our adversities are of our own creation.  We have erred in a sin either of commision or of omission, something we should not have done, or something we should have done.  Just as a parent punishes a child in order to correct it, so the laws of God prove immovable when we try to resist them.  The more we struggle to resist, the more hopelessly do we entangle ourselves at the mental or physical or material or emotional level, and sometimes on all four levels simultaneously.

Our attitude when we are sick or suffering should be, again, “Thy will be done.”  This calls for an inner submission while awaiting recovery, but doesn’t stop us from doing all within our power to get well.  A rededication of heart and mind and an acceptance of suffering as a needed lesson have on more than one occasion brought instantaneous healing.

“Thy Will, Thy Spirit, Thy Ways” is the cry of the awakened soul.

How does one pray?  Just as the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, so many people today ask the same question; it would be presumptuous of us, however, to tell another exactly how he should formulate the words of anything so personal and private as a prayer.

The words themselves are not important.  It is the spirit in which they are said which is all-important.

God already knows more about the contents of our hearts than we do; our real need is to be perpetually aware of Him as the source of our protection, and so we pray to keep unbroken contact with Him.  The words in themselves are not as important as some people would have us think.

As Kahilil Gibran says, “God listens not to your words save when He utters them through your lips.”

What is the best position in which to pray?  A group of ministers once met to decide that very problem.  They talked at length without reaching any conclusion.  Some insisted that it was essential to kneel.  Those with bony knees said that it was just as effective to keep seated. Others felt that they had to pace to and fro to generate the necessary fire.  When the debate threatened to become heated, they decided to leave the decision to the only parson who had been silent throughout.  He came from a rural parish, and he answered them thus: “One day when I was late for service, I ran across a neighbor’s yard and fell headlong into his well.  Half way down, my foot caught in a broken board, and I hung there upside down.  Brethren, I have never prayed so well before or since!”

I hope that proves that it is not our position but our sincerity which makes our prayers effective.

Prayer directs the consciousness to God.

Through prayer, we solicit aid from divine power.

Prayer encourages humility.

Prayer takes one outside of self to Him.

Prayer brings guidance.

Prayer releases tensions.

Prayer brings healing.

Many people go into a state of meditation without realizing it when, worn out from prayer, they wait for answering help.  Here the results of prayer are one with the rewards of meditation.

While we need always to call on the Lord, we need even more to listen to Him, and it is in the quiet of meditation that there is a stepping-up of spiritual receptivity in every phase of our being.

We learn so much more by listening.  This is what the Bible means when it says:  “Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalms 46:10)

Every religion speaks of the quest of the soul for the Holy Grail, the place of the Most High, the Light, the Father.  The Chinese speak of it as “The Old Road”;  the Hindus call it “The Path of Return”; and in Christianity it is referred to as the way back to the Father.  Meditation is the gateway that leads us to Him. 

 Dreams – Are They A Gateway To The Spirit World?

During the dreaming state of sleep, we experience the different levels of consciousness and receive input from the different dimensions of the spirit world.  Through dreaming, we have special access to our spirit within.  According to the Cayce readings, there is not a question we can ask which cannot be answered from the depths of our inner consciousness when the proper attunement is made.

A dream may be of a physical, mental, or spiritual nature and may deal with all manner of psychic manifestations.  These include telepathy, clairvoyance, prophetic visions, out of body traveling, communication with beings in other dimensions including deceased friends and relatives, spirit guides, angels, Christ, and even the voice of God.  Dreams can also give invaluable information on the status of the body.

All subconscious minds are in contact with one another.  Through the subconsious, dreams may place us in attunement with those in the physical plane or those in the spiritual plane.  We may be visited in the night by discarnate entities for many reasons: they may seek to give us assurance  about their well-being in other planes of existence; they may come seeking our aid through prayer; they may come to bring us information which may be very helpful or limited; or they may come to influence us with their own desires or perspectives, which may be helpful or harmful.  For example, there are dream reports of deceased relatives appearing and giving instructions about where to find a will or a lost object.

The events we experience in the third dimension are, as it were, a “past condition” because this dimension is simply a projection or a reflection of what is being built at another higher level.  Therefore, when  we tune into these higher levels, as we may in dreams, we become aware of what is being built, and what may be projected into the physical in the future.  Nothing of importance happens to us that is not foreshadowed in our dreams.  Which is not to say that all dreams are precognitive or that the exact detail of everything we experience is given earlier in dreams. However, the word “foreshadowed” suggests that we may glimpse and be warned of what we are building now which may come into manifestation later.  We call these dreams “precognitive” or “prophetic”.

Just as the angels spoke to people in dreams in the times of the Bible, the spirit world still speaks to people to this day. Some people came to Cayce with dreams of Christ.  None was told that it was simply his imagination, but all were assured they were indeed in touch with Him.

There is no dimension of human life, whether social, financial, emotional or physical, mental or spiritual with which the dream may not on occasion deal.  Dreams may encourage or reprimand, instruct or deceive, inspire or seduce, guide or confuse.  The potential for an immense array of experiences in consciousness is always there.  What we actually receive depends upon our attitudes, motivations, the measure of our attunement, and the extent to which we have made applicable what was received in earlier dreams and in waking experiences.

Many people came to Cayce to have their dreams interpreted.  An example was the dream of a young man about his father-in-law, who had recently taken his own life.  In the dream a voice commented, “he is the most uncomfortable fellow in the world,” and then the dreamer was shown his own baby crying for food.  The image was to convey the dead man’s hunger for guidance and spiritual sustenance, said Cayce.  The next night the dreamer heard the man’s own voice, together with “a wandering impression of restlessness.”  The voice said, “I seek rest.  I want to leave and be with my family down there.”  Again Cayce said the dream contact had been authentic, showing the dreamer how much his prayers were needed for the father-in-law, who was still an “earthbound” discarnate.  He added that the reason the discarnate was turning towards people in earthly life was that “the lessons are learned from that plane, see?”  It was a point Cayce often made, that souls who had once entered the earth had to learn their final lessons in the earth, where will is called into play in a fashion different from existence on other planes.

Yet contact between the dead and the living can be joyous.  Sometimes it occurs because the dead want to show the living what death is like, to take away their fear and grief.  Exploring the possible reality of such contact, one dreamer had her side pinched by a discarnate friend, so vividly that she screamed in fright, while another had his toe pulled when he asked for it – and did not ask again.  One dream took a man inside the brain of a woman dying of cancer, a relative, and showed him precisely what a relief death was, when it finally came.  A later dream also showed him how a soul feels when awakening to consciousness after death. Discarnates are not only rewarded by recognition from the living, or even by the joy of teaching the living.  They can also, in relatively unusual cases, work directly with the living for the fulfillment of worthy causes. 

 The Book of Revelation – What are its secrets?

The final book of the Bible is called the Book of Revelation.  Written by the Apostle John toward the end of his life, he records a vision he experiences while in meditation.  This vision contains a tremendous amount of symbolism; the same kind of symbolism one would see in a dream, a vison of the spirit world.  All such Biblical visions, such as Peter’s dream of a sheet filled with unclean animals being let down to earth, are not to be taken literally.  There are always hidden meanings behind the symbols. The symbols involved in such visions and dreams represent spiritual archetypes having a much deeper meaning than a literal interpretation. Such is the case with the Book of Revelation.

Edgar Cayce unlocked the symbolism of the Book of Revelation while under hypnosis.  He gave a large amount of readings specifically for the purpose of discovering the Book’s hidden meaning.  What Cayce revealed can be contained in a book itself.  What follows is a very general discussion of the Cayce interpretation

Chapters 1-3: Letters to the Churches

John explains that he was in the Spirit when Christ appears to him standing in the midst of seven candlesticks.  Christ then tells John to write down what he sees and hears concerning seven churches

Interpretation:

While in meditation, John’s conscious mind is contacted by his superconscious mind, the Christ consciousness, which is the divine core of every person.  The seven churches represent the seven spiritual centers of the body or “seals”, where the physical, mental and spiritual forces all come together. The Christ consciousness tells John that anyone who can regain control of these spiritual centers within their bodies can access the Mind of Christ, the universal superconscious, and never need to reincarnate again (verse 3:12). Here is a table of the symbols:

Church of Ephesus ——- SEX GLANDS ———- Seal 1

Church of Smyrna ——- LYDEN GLAND ——- Seal 2

Church of Pergamos —- ADRENAL GLANDS — Seal 3

Church of Thyatira —– THYMUS GLAND —— Seal 4

Church of Sardis ——– THYROID GLAND —– Seal 5

Church of Philadelphia – PINEAL GLAND ——- Seal 6

Church of Laodicea —– PITUITARY GLAND — Seal 7

Chapter 4-11: Christ opens the Seals of the book in heaven

John now appears at the Throne of God and sees four beasts and twenty-four elders around it. On the Throne sits God who has a book with seven seals.  John weeps when he learns that no one can open the seals to the book.  One of the elders tells John that Christ is able to open the seals.  Christ then opens the seals, resulting in many earth changes.  The seventh seal unleashes seven angels who sound seven trumpets which are sounded one by one.

Interpretation:

John has a mental awakening when he attains the spiritual level of the Christ consciousness, within the throne of his own body.  The four beasts are his four lower spiritual center’s desires and the twenty-four elders are the twenty-four cranial nerves that lead to his five senses.  The superconscious, the Christ Mind, is now in full control of John’s body. The body is symbolized by a book with seven seals which no man has the ability to open on his own (verse 5:3).  Only through the development of the Mind of Christ within a person’s being by experience can these spiritual centers be opened. As each spiritual center is opened, different parts of the body are purified and upheavals of the body occur mentally, physically, and spiritually.  The Christ consciousness opens the seventh center, the pituitary, as a result of perfect control of the mind for one half hour (verse 8:1). Here are more symbols interpreted:

PARADISE OF GOD = The original consciousness of man before his fall

TREE OF LIFE = The spiritual centers of the body perfectly synchronized.

ANGEL OF THE CHURCH = The intelligent force governing a spiritual center

SATAN = unregenerated mind

BOOK OF LIFE = The collective unconscious record of all souls

EARTH = The physical body

NEW JERUSALEM = The new consciousness awakened

NAKEDNESS = Exposure of faults

SEVEN LAMPS = The seven intelligences of the spiritual centers of the body

Chapter 12-14: A Woman, A Dragon, Two Beasts, and a Lamb

John sees a woman with twelve stars about to bear a child.  Next to the woman is a dragon that is ready to devour the child she is giving birth to.  After the child is born, the child is taken to the Throne of God. Afterward, a war in heaven occurs and the devil and his angels are cast out of heaven to earth.  John also sees a beast rise out of the sea which the world worships.  John then sees a Lamb on the earth and angels proclaiming the fall of Babylon.

Interpretation:

John is shown a picture of the soul of Man in its development since the days of eternity.  The woman symbolizes the human soul crowned with the twelve basic patterns of Man (the zodiac).  The child she bears is the conscious mind.  As the conscious mind is born, a rival force of the Self Will occurs, which brings about recurring periods of rebellion in Man. Through Divine intervention, the conscious mind is protected while the unconscious mind from which it sprung, is withdrawn below the conscious level.  This is the same story as symbolized as the fall of man in the Book of Genesis.  Rebellion from the physical brings conflict into the soul but the soul can remain above it by remaining concealed from the forces of Self-Will.  The beast John sees rising out of the sea is the selfish desires that arise which are capable of ruling man.  These desires spring from the Self Will of the unspiritualized intellect of Man whom the world worships as a “symbol of success”.  The human intellect, lacking spiritual orientation, cuts itself off from all that is Divine.  The Lamb John sees are the forces of the Christ consciousness in the world going into action.  Babylon, the pattern for earthly riches and success in the gratification of the flesh, begins to be destroyed as men are shown the consequences of their prostitution of their higher faculties.

MARK OF THE BEAST = The pattern of animalistic behavior

MARK OF THE LAMB = The pattern of the evolved Divine behavior

NUMBER OF THE BEAST = 666

NUMBER OF MAN = 666 = Natural man as opposed to evolved man

Chapter 15-18: Seven Angels, Seven Vials of Seven Plagues, and a Great Whore riding a Seven-Headed Beast.

John is shown seven angels each of whom holds a vial containing a plague which they pour upon the earth one at a time.  John then sees a woman sitting on a seven-headed beast with ten horns.  The woman wears on her forehead a name written “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.”  John is told the seven heads symbolize the seven mountains on which the woman sits and the ten horns symbolize ten kings.  These make war against the Lamb and the Lamb conquers.

Interpretation:

John is seeing within the soul of Man, the collective unconscious, that the souls of individuals are purified and tested on seven levels of consciousness symbolized by the seven plagues being poured out by the seven angels.  When all seven levels have been purified, then and only then can a person control the physical, mental, and spiritual forces within his body.  Physical diseases arise from the misuse of the forces and self-gratification of the flesh wars against universal truth.  This brings about conflict in the world against groups and governments.  The end of the seven ordeals comes when man’s social institutions and concepts collapse, leaving universal truth to be realized.  The Whore of Babylon symbolizes lust and the beast it rides on are manmade ideas stemming from self-gratification.  It is explained to John that these forces have taken control of the seven spiritual centers of Man’s body, thereby becoming possessed and ruled.  However, as the highest forces of evolving man overcome the forces of self, even the ten basic urges symbolized by the ten horns, will in time fulfill the Divine pattern.  As the divine nature in Man becomes less realized, society is destroyed by its own hand through self-gratification.

SEVEN PLAGUES = Trials in which the soul may overcome its karma

VIALS of the WRATH of GOD = Karma, consequences

ARMAGEDDON = Conflict

FALSE PROPHET = Self-delusion

Chapter 19-22: Rejoicing in Heaven, the Devil Thrown into a Bottomless Pitt, a New Heaven and New Earth.

John nows sees much rejoicing in heaven and the appearance of Christ. An angel casts the devil into a bottomless pit for one thousand years. John then sees a new heaven and a new earth come into being.

Interpretation:

What was the final salvation of the bodily, mental, and spiritual forces in John in Chapter 11, now are shown to take place in collective man.  When Man recognizes the Divinity within him as the controlling force in the world, and turns away from his own selfish pattern of living for self alone, the old pattern disappears and the Christ Pattern emerges. John is told that the merging of the evolved self with the Divine superconscious which has taken place in John must also take place in all humanity (verse 19:7).  The fulfilled pattern of evolved Man, the Christ, is now shown in a position of power.  Now the archetype of Man’s continual rebellions, the self-willed intellect symbolized as the devil, is confined for a time in the collective unconsciousness.  During this period of one thousand years only the evolved souls incarnate the earth (verse 20:4). At the end of this period, the remaining souls begin to incarnate, bringing with them their unsatisfied ambitions and desires.  This, of course, brings about the former conditions of imbalance (wars and plagues).  These conditions, all man made, are now themselves eliminated and all mental forms and patterns not formed by Divine Will are purged (verse 20:14). The new heaven and new earth John sees is Man’s perfected state of consciousness and regenerated body.  Man’s mind at this point is now divine in the perfection of control and is free from outside limitation.  Man’s conscious mind merges with the Christ Mind.  Revelation 22:18-19 states that if anyone adds or takes away from this book, that person will experience the plagues in this book.  The “book” is the body, which is the vehicle for human experience in the world.  Through it the lessons of the soul are learned.  There can be no shortcuts or meanderings without dire consequences to it.

MARRIAGE of the LAMB = Union of the evolved self with the superconscious

WORD of GOD = Christ the Logos, the fulfilled pattern of man

LAKE OF FIRE = The subconscious area of repression, the “id”

FIRST RESURRECTION = The reincarnation of advanced souls

GOG and MAGOG = Worldly influences

THE DEAD IN JUDGMENT = Reincarnating souls

HELL = Remorse, guilt and frustration

SECOND DEATH = The destruction of all manmade evil conditions

TWELVE TRIBES OF ISREAL = The twelves basic patterns of man, the zodiac

TWELVE GATES; 12 ANGELS; 12 FOUNDATIONS = see Twelve Tribes of Israel

TEMPLE OF GOD = The superconscious mind

NEW JERUSALEM = The state of the evolved soul 

 The Mysteries – What are these religions about?

This system of metaphysical thought which emerges from the readings of Edgar Cayce is a Christianized version of the mystery religions of ancient Egypt, Chaldea, Persia, India, and Greece.  It fits the figure of Christ into the tradition of one God for all people, and places Him in His proper place, at the apex of the philosophical structure;  He is the capstone of the pyramid – the Stone the builders rejected.

The mysteries were concerned with man’s problem of freeing his soul from the world.  In the mystery symbologies the earth was always represented as the underworld, and the soul was lost in this underworld until freed from it by wisdom, faith, and understanding.  In the Greek mysteries, Persephone, was abducted by Pluto, Lord of Hades.  Persephone is the soul of man, whose true home is in the heavens.

Jesus said He came to fulfill the law, and part of that law was the Cabala, the secret doctrine of the Jews – their version of the mysteries.

It is interesting to speculate on the fact that Edgar Cayce was raised in strict nineteenth century Bible tradition, and suffered the greatest mental and emotional shock of his life when he discovered that in his spiritual readings he declared the truth of the mysteries and acclaimed Jesus as their crowning glory.  Edgar Cayce had only a seventh grade education and consciously knew nothing of what he said under hypnosis. He was only versed in the Bible and had no high school or college background of any kind.  Up until his revelations, Cayce had never heard of the mystery religions.  Yet his readings check with everything about them that is known to be authentic.

The mystery religions were, then, a preparation for the coming of Jesus.  He was the fruit of their efforts, and His message was a fuller revelation to the people at large of the mysteries themselves.  In the scramble which Christianity made to establish itself as the dominant religion of the decaying Roman Empire, the mysteries were denied their proper place, since to grant that they had truth in them would justify their further existence.

The complex symbology employed by the mystery religions has survived fragmentarily in Christianity, notable in church architecture and in the sacrifice of the Mass.  The early Christians used every means possible to conceal the pagan origin of their symbols, doctrines, and rituals.  They either destroyed the sacred books of other peoples among whom they settled, or made them inaccessible to students of comparative philosophy, apparently believing that in this way they could stamp out all record of the pre-Christian origin of their doctrines.  The doctrine of reincarnation and the Gnostic mysteries of Christ were thrown out by the Church in 553 A.D. 

 Astrology – What Is the Christian Perspective?

According to the Cayce readings, our solar system is a cycle of experiences for the soul.  It has nine dimensions, corresponding to the planets;  they represent focal points for the dimensions, or environments in which the dimensions can express and materialize themselves – although materialization of each dimension is different.  This is the third dimension, and it is a sort of laboratory for the whole system, because only here is free will completely dominant.  This is also the only planet where three dimensional physical life exists.  On the other planes, souls exist in spirit form corresponding to that dimension.  On the other planes, or dimensions, some measure of control is kept over the soul to see that it  learns the proper lessons

The control is usually by the soul itself, if it has evolved sufficiently, because once the body of this dimension has been left and the consciousness of this life has been absorbed into the subconscious, the separation between the two is lifted.

The subconscious is the record of all the lives of the soul, in this system and in other systems, out among the stars.  It is the story of what we do with our spirit – the portion of God that is given to us for life, with the gift of individuality, or separate existence from God.  Our problem is to perfect our individuality, and then we return to God.  Our spirit and soul, or individuality, are joined to Him.

Our astrological influences from the planets, or dimensions, we have inhabited will be good or bad, weak or strong, according to the experiences we have had there, and how we handled our problems.

For example, we react to the earth according to the manner in which we have handled the problems of earth in our other lives – brotherly love, material possessions, sex, food and drink.  Sometimes we are working on an earth problem to the exclusion of any influence from the stars or planets at all.

The stars represent soul patterns, not experiences.  The twelve signs of the zodiac are twelve patterns from which the soul chooses when coming into the earth plane.  They are like races – patterns of temperament, personality, etc.

Astrology is mentioned all throughout the Bible.  People had believed in the stars in Biblical times.  Everyone knew the influence of the sun on the earth, and the sun was a star.  It certainly made a pattern, so far as life on earth was concerned – it shaped everything, or at least nourished everything – and the shape had to be such as to allow the sun to give life to it.  The other stars, the signs of the zodiac, for instance, influence people in subtler ways:  by making them bullish, or lionish, or airy, or introspective.  Since the planets are old dwelling places of the soul, they influence people when they come to a point of prominence in the sky just as a man who had once lived in a certain city would be influenced by reading of it, or meeting someone from the town, or by seeing photographs of it.

Take the moon, for instance.  It’s influence is obvious on such things as the tides and the female cycle.  These things are observable because the moon was so close.  The word “lunatic” stems from “luna” meaning moon.  Law enforcement officials are well aware of the affect a full moon has on the crime rate.  The other planets are farther away, and the stars are far beyond them.  But their light comes to the earth, and they influence in some way the heart, or the brain, or the emotions.

One of the great astrological stories in the Bible is the story of the  star of Bethlehem.  It is written that the star was a sign from God signalling the birth of the Messiah into the world.  The three Magi, Persian astrologer-kings, determined the time of this birth by the position of this star.  In 1600, Johannes Kepler hypothesised that this star was actually a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.  Confirmed by modern astrology, this symbolism ties in with the prophecies of that era concerning a Messiah amongst the Jews.  The conjunctions occurred at the end of Pisces, ruled by Jupiter.  Jupiter is the planet of kings.  Saturn is the planet that rules the Jews, thereby giving the king of the Jews. This was a very infrequent triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn and it occurred in the year 7 B.C.

Every 2160 years a different sign of the zodiac is in the position dominating earth.  It goes backward, and is therefore called a precession. During the heyday of Egypt the sign of Taurus, the Bull, was in the commanding position.  So the people worshiped the bull.  But Taurus ruled only by reflection, as it were.  It was the overt sign.  The sun, actually in Scorpio, was shining across into Taurus.  So Scorpio, the real sign, the spiritual guide of the search, appeared on the foreheads and staffs of the priests of the time.

We are now at the tail-end of the Age of Pisces, the fish (the Church Age) and will enter the Age of Aquarius (the Age of the Water-Bearer, Christ) around the year 2300 AD.  Christ was born as the last Lamb of the Age of Aries (the Ram) and the first Fish of sacrificial Pisces.  The two fish of Pisces show Christianity’s split between spirit and matter.  The Equinox reached the first star of the second fish in 1817, and the rise of secular science in this year fulfills ancient predictions of “antichrist”. Jesus recruited fishermen as disciples to make them fishers of men.  He fed the masses with a miraculous draft of fishes.  His followers were know as “pisciculi”, the “little fishes”.  The sign of the fish has been know the world over to be the sign of Christianity.

With the Age of Aquarius, after much earth upheavals, the true Water Bearer will rule this planet.  He is the one who will bring Living waters that bring eternal life.  Many believe this Age will bring heaven on earth. This is the time when the prophet says “They shall beat their swords into plowshares”.  Jesus Himself said that there will be wonders in the sun, moon, and stars signalling His return.  We must always look to the many signs so that we will not be taken unawares. 

 Edgar Cayce – Who Was This Man?

The story of Edgar Cayce properly belongs in the history of hypnosis.  Cayce had the uncanny ability of putting himself asleep at will and speaking in an authoritative voice on subjects far beyond the range of his normal knowledge.  He was not even an avid reader of books.  All he needed was the subject to be discussed, or the inquiring person’s name, address, and whereabouts, a conductor to make suggestions and ask the questions, and a stenographer to take it all down.  Almost every day for forty-two years he went to sleep and answered questions covering an immense range of subject matter.  He could do this at any time, any place.  There were no darkened rooms, turbans, incense, crystal balls, or paying audiences.

Persons from all walks of life came to him for help or advise.  Among them were a movie producer, an actress, a top steel magnate, a U.S. Senator, a Vice-President of the United States; parents, the sick, the lame, the disturbed.  His strange gift of clairvoyance has never been duplicated in modern times, although a few other psychics have proved a measure of ability beyond any doubt.

The Cayce records are unique.  Twenty million words from an unconscious mind is not a commonplace.  If they can be believed, new frontiers wait to be explored.  Clairvoyance, clairaudience, dreams, hypnotism, point the way to a better understanding of the history and depth of the human mind and soul. A challenging field lies before man in his search for truth and the meaning of human existence in earth.

Cayce was born on a farm near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, in 1877.  A poor student, he received no more than a grammar school education, and eventually took up photography as a trade.  His psychic powers were accidentally discovered in 1901, when he was twenty-four.  He caught a cold and suddenly lost his voice.  After a year of numerous and unsuccessful medical treatments, he became resigned to a life of rasping whispers.

About this time hypnotism was enjoying a fad throughout the country, and a friend suggested that he try it as a means of helping his condition. Cayce was willing to try anything that might cure his throat.  A local hypnotist offered his services, and Edgar readily accepted.  He insisted, however, that he put himself to sleep, with the friend making the suggestions after he was “under”.

The experiment proved to be more than successful.  Cayce went into a deep trance and described the condition in his vocal cords, advising, strangely enough, what to do for it.  The advice was followed by the hypnotist – that of suggesting the blood circulation increase to the affected area – and when Cayce awakened he had regained his normal speaking voice.  After a number of follow-up sessions, the cure turned out to be a permanent one.

Cayce, his family and his friend were astounded.  When word got around of this unusual occurrence, he was besieged with requests by the sick to try his diagnoses and curative methods on them.  He was reluctant to attempt anything of the kind.  In the first place, he was uneducated and knew nothing of medicine or anatomy in his waking state. After all, he had no idea what went on while he was asleep.  In the end, however, he gave his consent, and his misgivings proved unfounded.

In most of the cases that were presented to him, the celebrated psychic never met the persons making the requests.  They were received through the mail; the recipients of the readings were usually hundreds of miles away.   All Cayce needed was the full name of the person, his address, and where he would be at the appointed time of the reading.  Lying on the couch with his necktie and shoelaces loosened – for better circulation, the readings said – he could answer any question put to him.  His wife, Gertrude, usually made the suggestions and asked the questions, while his lifelong secretary, Gladys Davis, took everything down in shorthand.  After a while, the sleeping Cayce would start to mumble, as though searching for something.  Then he would clear his throat and speak in a firm, authoritative voice.  “Yes, we have the body,” he would begin, and then go into a half-hour discussion of the physical condition of the person who was ill.

But in 1923 a startling new kind of reading was discovered.  Cayce was operating a photographic studio in Selma, Alabama, when one day he met Arthur Lammers, a well-to-do printer.  His hobby was metaphysical philosophy, and what he wanted to know was far beyond the range of Edgar’s normal thinking.

“What is the meaning of life?” he asked.  “What is the real nature of man?  What is the meaning of birth and death?  Why are we here?  Cayce accepted Mr. Lammers offer to explain these mysteries through his powers of hypnosis.  What followed was the beginning of the metaphysical thought that emerged from 2,500 “Life” readings, as distinguished from the “Physical” readings he had previously been giving.

For Cayce, this was the beginning of another period of tortuous self-doubt.  Brought up in an atmosphere of strict, orthodox, Protestant Christianity, he was uninformed on the other great religions of the world and their similarities with his own.  What the readings now said seemed foreign to everything he had been taught and had been teaching in his Sunday school classes for many years.  The essential principles of the great religions, said the readings, were nevertheless all the same – they were only clothed in different garments.

Cayce withheld judgment on the point for a long time.  In the end he and those close to the work came to accept reincarnation.  It was unprovable of course, but in provable instances the readings had shown themselves to be honest if not infallible.  The answers were consistent.

Eventually, somebody thought to ask the sleeping Cayce where he was getting his information.  He gave two sources his mind apparently succeeded in tapping.  One was the unconscious or subconscious mind of the subject himself; the other was what was called the universal memory of nature, Jung’s Collective Unconscious, or the Akashic Records.  This is the “Recording Angel”, or the “Book of Life”.

Say the Cayce records: “Edgar Cayce’s mind is amenable to suggestion, the same as all other subconscious minds; but in addition thereto, it has the power to interpret to the objective mind of others what it acquires from the subconscious minds of other individuals of the same kind.  The subconscious forgets nothing.  The conscious mind receives the impressions from without and transfers all thought to the subconscious, where it remains even though the conscious be destroyed” as in death.

The readings also say, “The information as obtained and given by this body (Edgar Cayce) is gathered from the sources from which the suggestion may derive its information.  In this state the conscious mind becomes subjugated to the subconscious, the superconscious, or soul mind, and may and does communicate with like minds, and the subconscious or soul force becomes universal.  From any subconscious mind information may be obtained either from this plane or from the impression as left by the individuals that have gone before.  As we see a mirror directly reflecting that which is before it – it is not the object itself, but that reflected”.

This is a new idea.  If it is true, then Cayce’s mind was able to tap the mass of knowledge possessed by millions of other subconscious minds, including those who have passed over to the spiritual, cosmic realms in death.  This would be an almost unlimited source of wisdom, since it was universal and Cayce was unhindered by time and space.  Upon this “Akashic record” is supposedly registered every sound, every thought, every vibration since the beginning of time.  Cayce, then was no “medium”.  When this idea first appeared in a reading, few, including Cayce, could believe it.  Science knew nothing of any such etheric  substance.

Newspaper headlines did not affect him as offers of fame and large sums of money came.  Although he never earned more than a modest living at best, he turned down all efforts by others to commercialize on the readings.  Desperately poor at times, he once flatly refused an offer of $1,000 a day to go on the stage.  Simple in his tastes, he was an expert fisherman and a horrible golfer.  He loved to talk about the Bible and would preach a sermon at the drop of a word.

A national magazine ran an article titled, “Miracle Man of Virginia Beach”, and Edgar was swamped with an avalanche of 25,000 requests for readings.  By 1944 he was a year behind in appointments and suffering from over-exertion and edema of the lungs.

A stroke confined him to bed.  Now 67, he never recovered.  His last reading, given for himself, was not followed by the doctors in charge.  On January 3rd, 1945, Edgar Cayce passed over to the other side.  No man ever left the world a stranger legacy. 

  The Readings – What Else Did Cayce Say?

“The spirits of all that have passed from the physical plane remain about the plane until their developments carry them onward, or they are in the plane of communication, or remain with this sphere, any may be communicated with.  There are thousands about us here at present.” (3744-2)

“The soul is the God-part in you, the living God.” (262-77)

Question: “What is the highest possible psychic realization?”

Answer: “That God, the Father, speaks directly to the sons of men.” (440-4)

“In each atom, in each corpuscle, is life. Life is that you worship as God.” (2968-1)

Question: “Is the destiny of every spiritual entity to eventually become one with God?”

Answer: “Unless the entity wills its banishment … Yet God has not willed that any soul should perish.” (900-20)

Question: “If the soul fails to improve itself, what becomes of it?”

Answer: “Can the will of man continue to defy its Maker?” (826-8)

“Each soul is destined to become a portion again of the First Cause, or back to its Maker.” (987-2)

“You grow to heaven, you don’t go to heaven.” (3409-1)

“All you may know of heaven or hell is within your own self.” (4035-1)

“The judge shall be your own conscience; for conscience is that which awakens the mind of the soul; the Soul that of your self that is the nearest portion of the dwelling place of the Holy of Holies Himself – the Spirit of the Master.” (254-54)

“The coming into the earth has been and is, for the evolution or evolving of the soul unto its awareness.” (5749-5)

“The Father has not willed that any soul should perish, and is thus mindful that each soul has again, and yet again, the opportunity for making its paths straight.” (2021-1)

“All souls were created in the beginning, and are finding their way back to whence they came.” (3744-4)

“All souls in the beginning were one with the Father.  The separation or turning away brought evil.” (262-56)

“For, the earth is only an atom in the universe of worlds.” (5749-3)

Concerning Jesus: “An entity, then, is the pattern of divinity in materiality, or in the earth.  As man found himself out of touch with that complete consciousness of the oneness of God, it became necessary that the will of God, the Father, be made manifested, that a pattern be introduced into man’s consciousness.  Thus the Son of Man came into the earth, made in the form, the likeness of man; with body, mind, soul.  Yet the soul was the Son, the soul was the Light.” (3357-2)

“Christ is the universal consciousness of love that we see manifested in those who have forgotten self, as Jesus, give themselves that others may know the truth.” (1376-1)”

“He came into the earth that we, as soul-entities, might know ourselves to be ourselves, and yet one with Him; as He, the Master, the Christ, knew Himself and yet one with the Father.” (3003-10)

“From what may anyone be saved?  Only from themselves!  That is, their individual hell; they dig it with their own desires!” (262-40)

“You’ll not be in heaven if you’re not leaning on the arm of someone you have helped.” (3352-1)

“Know the Lord thy God is One.  And all that you may know of good must first be within self.  All you may know of God must be manifested through yourself.  To hear of Him is not to know.  To apply and live and be is to know! (2936-2)

“The Lord abhorreth the quitter.” (518-2)

“Happiness is a state of mind attained by giving same to others.” (2772-2)

“Happiness is love of something outside of self.  It may never be obtained, may never be known by loving only things within self.” (281-30)

“The conquering of self is truly greater than were one to conquer many worlds.” (115-1)

“The spirit of hate, the anti-Christ, is contention, strife, fault-finding, lovers of self, lovers of praise.” (281-16)

“Let that rather be the your watchword, ‘I am my brother’s keeper.’ Who is your brother?  Whoever, wherever he is that bears the imprint of the Maker in the earth, be he black, white, gray or grizzled, be he young, be he Hottentot, or on the throne or in the president’s chair.” (2780-3)