We are responsible to each other. The essential issue of life is how we treat our fellow human beings. We aren’t so much responsible for each other as we have obligations to each other. In fact, it’s in this social realm that we have the best chance to fulfill the purpose that our soul enters into the material realm in the first place. We’re here to become aware of our relationship to God, and that awareness comes primarily in the ways we think about, talk to, and interact with other human beings.
Taken together, these two truths of Edgar Cayce’s philosophy give us the big picture of his thinking: insightful, metaphysical laws that teach us why things are the way they are alongside the quieter, more modest reminders of what we need to value most in who we are. When we understand and apply what the readings have to offer from both these points of view, then we become students of Edgar Cayce in the deepest sense. The following life reading was given in 1938, and although intended for a specific individual, it is a beautiful illustration of what Cayce had in mind for all of us.
THE READING
THIS PSYCHIC READING, 1567-2,
WAS GIVEN BY EDGAR CAYCE ON MAY 26, 1938.
The conductor was Gertrude Cayce.
EC: Yes, we have the records here of that entity now known as or called Miss [1567].
These as we find may be said to be very beautiful records, yet in ways such that it may be questioned by some as to why one who has been so far advanced in some experiences has been so little in the limelight or in the position of prominence through the same ways in the present.
If the varied experiences are studied with an eye single to service, these may possibly be understood or comprehended. For remember that God looketh on the heart and not, as man, upon the outward appearances.
Hence there are lessons to be gained by the entity from even those feelings, those innate urges that cry for expression. For in their very expression, not finding outlet they turn as it were upon those influences from within.
But we find that if these are used, the entity may yet find a peace, a manner or way of expression that will bring joy into the experience in this sojourn.
In giving the interpretations, know that these are chosen with the purpose that they are to become helpful experiences.
An experience, then, is not only a happening, but what is the reaction in your own mind? What does it do to you to make your life, your habits, your relationships to others of a more helpful nature, with a more hopeful attitude?
These are the criterions for every individual’s experience—sincerity of purpose, of desire; putting the whole law into effect in the activities—which is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, thy mind, thy body, and thy neighbor as thyself.
This is the whole law. All the other things given or written are only the interpreting of same.
Then what does such a proclaiming preclude? From what basis is the reasoning drawn? What is the purpose of an individual experience of an entity or soul into the earth at any given period?
These answered then give a background for the interpreting of why.
There are urges latent and manifested in the experience of each soul, each entity, each body.
First we begin with the fact that God is; and that the heavens and the earth, and all nature, declare this. Just as there is the longing within every heart for the continuity of life.
What then is life? As it has been given, in Him we live and move and have our being. Then He, God, is! Or life in all of its phases, its expressions, is a manifestation of that force or power we call God, or that is called God.
Then life is continuous. For that force, that power which has brought the earth, the universe and all the influences in same into being, is a continuous thing—is a first premise.
All glory, all honor then, is due that creative force that may be manifested in our experiences as individuals through the manner in which we deal with our fellow man!
Then we say, when our loved ones, our heart’s desires are taken from us, in what are we to believe?
This we find is only answered in that which has been given as His promise, that God hath not willed that any soul should perish but hath with every temptation, every trial, every disappointment made a way of escape or for correcting same. It is not a way of justification only, as by faith, but a way to know, to realize that in these disappointments, separations, there comes the assurance that He cares!
For to be absent from the body is to be present with that consciousness that we, as an individual, have worshiped as our God! For as we do it unto the least of our brethren, our associates, our acquaintance, our servants day by day, so we do unto our Maker!
What is the purpose then, we ask, for our entering into this vale, or experience, or awareness, where disappointments, fears, trials of body and of mind appear to mount above all of the glories that we may see?
In the beginning, when there was the creating, or the calling of individual entities into being, we were made to be the companions with the Father-God.
Now flesh and blood may not inherit eternal life; only the spirit, only the purpose, only the desire may inherit same.
Then that error in individual activity—not of another but of ourselves, individually—separated us from that awareness.
Hence God prepared the way through flesh whereby all phases of spirit, mind and body might express.
The earth then is a three-dimensional, a three-phase or three-manner expression. Just as the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit are one. So are our body, mind and soul one—in Him.
Now we have seen, we have heard, we know that the Son represents or signifies the Mind.
He, the Son, was in the earth-earthy even as we—and yet is of the Godhead.
Hence the Mind is both material and spiritual, and taketh hold on that which is its environ, its want, in our experiences.
Then Mind, as He, was the Word—and dwelt among men; and we beheld Him as the face of the Father.
So is our mind made, so does our mind conceive—even as He; and is the builder.
Then that our mind dwells upon, that our mind feeds upon, that do we supply to our body—yes, to our soul!
Hence we find all of these are the background, as it were, for the interpreting of our experience, of our sojourns in the earth.
For the astrological or the relative position of the earth (our immediate home) is not the center of the universe, is not the center of our thought; but the kingdom of the Father or the kingdom of Heaven is within! Why? Because our mind, the Son, is within us.
Then with that consciousness of His awareness, we may know even as He has given, “Ye abide in me, as I in the Father—I will come and abide with thee.”
In that consciousness, then, the purposes for which each soul enters materiality are that it may become aware of its relationships to the Creative Forces or God; by the material manifestation of the things thought, said, done, in relation to its fellow man!
As the earth then occupies its three-dimensional phase of experience in our own solar system, and as each of those companions that are about the solar system represents as it were one of the phases of our conscience—the elements of our understanding—or our senses; then they each in their place, in their plane, bear a relationship to us, even as our desires for physical sustenance; that is: foods for the body; with all of the attributes, all of the abilities to take that we feed upon and turn it into elements for our body.
All of the elements are gathered from that upon which we have fed to build blood, bone, hair, nails; the sight, the hearing, the touching, the feelings, the expressions.
Why? Because these are quickened by the presence of the spirit of the Creative Force (within).
So our mind, with its attributes, gathers from that upon which we feed in our mental self; forming our concepts of our relationship with those things that are contrariwise to His biddings or in line with that law which is all-inclusive; that is, the love of the Father, with our mind, our body, our soul, and our neighbor as self.
Then all of these influences astrological (as known or called) from without, bear witness—or are as innate influences upon our activity, our sojourn through any given experience. Not because we were born with the sun in this sign or that, nor because Jupiter or Mercury or Saturn or Uranus or Mars was rising or setting, but rather:
Because we were made for the purpose of being companions with Him, a little lower than the angels who behold His face ever yet as heirs, as joint heirs with Him who is the Savior, the Way, then we have brought these about because of our activities through our experiences in those realms! Hence they bear witness by being in certain positions—because of our activity, our sojourn in those environs, in relationships to the universal forces of activity.
Hence they bear witness of certain urges in us, not beyond our will but controlled by our will!
For as was given of old, there is each day set before us life and death, good and evil. We choose because of our natures. If our will were broken, if we were commanded to do this or that, or to become as an automaton, our individuality then would be lost and we would only be as in Him without conscience—conscience—(consciousness) of being one with Him; with the abilities to choose for self!
For we can, as God, say yea to this, nay to that; we can order this or the other in our experience, by the very gifts that have been given or appointed unto our keeping. For we are indeed as laborers, co-laborers in the vineyard of the Lord—or of they that are fearful of His coming.
And we choose each day whom we will serve! And by the records in time and space, as we have moved through the realms of His kingdom, we have left our mark upon same.
Then they influence us, either directly or indirectly, in the manner as we have declared ourselves in favor of this or that influence in our material experience. And by the casting of our lot in this or that direction, we bring into our experience the influence in that manner.
PHILOSOPHY
Edgar Cayce’s philosophy of life is not summarized easily, but that was just exactly what Thomas Sugrue did in the concluding chapter of his authorized biography of Cayce, There Is a River. To help Sugrue, Cayce gave a reading to answer a series of problematic questions that Sugrue had identified; reading 5749- 14 is arguably one of the most significant readings ever given by Cayce. Since 1943, Sugrue’s remarkable book has introduced the work of Edgar Cayce to hundreds of thousands of people, and the philosophy chapter is a foundation for beginning to work with the ideas presented in the readings. Sugrue probably would not have been able to write it without this reading.
Once you’ve studied 5749-14 carefully, read the philosophy chapter. Sugrue tells the story of the creation of souls and how souls came to be trapped in materiality. His narrative creates the context for understanding Cayce’s Christology and his approach to such topics as meditation, dreams, and reincarnation. Any reader of the chapter will no doubt recognize points that are clearly articulated in the reading. But in other passages from the chapter, Sugrue interpreted what he understood from the reading and then added to it. It’s an especially fine illustration of the author extrapolating the essence of Cayce and presenting it in an understandable way to general readers.
To prepare for the reading, Sugrue clearly had done his home-work. He studied the readings carefully, along with biblical and other philosophical sources. For most of the eleven “problem” issues Sugrue hoped Cayce would clarify, he already had tried to formulate his own best thinking on the matter, offering Cayce a possible solution and requesting comment. This sound strategy is consistent with the approach often encouraged by the readings for consulting psychic sources.
Although there are many subtleties and interesting nuances found in the reading, at least five major themes are addressed:
• Creation and the purpose of life.
• The importance of free will.
• A cosmic view of the soul’s journey.
• The process of incarnation and influences that shape a lifetime.
• The mysteries of Jesus, the Christ.
There are, of course, other readings on creation, and Thomas Sugrue was able to draw upon them as well. But in this reading, we find an especially straightforward description of the fall of humanity. Edgar Cayce takes evil seriously. But to answer the ancient problem of its origins, he focuses on the misuse of free will by souls. To decipher essential points in this portion of the reading, it may be helpful to notice that the term soul is used for the spiritual component of our nature, whereas man refers to the physical creation that happened much later.
Were souls meant to come to earth? Here, the answer is a little more cryptic (“The earth [was] . . . not necessarily as a place of tenancy for the souls of men” [emphasis added]). Apparently, it became a place for meaningful experience after souls had fallen through their own misuse of free will.
The issue of free will is so prominent throughout this discourse, in fact, that reading 5749-14 might well be considered Cayce’s most important statement on the subject. Free will, one of the three attributes of the soul along with mind and spirit, is described in a variety of ways:
• The cause of the Fall.
• The greatest factor (surpassing both heredity and environment) in helping or hurting the soul’s growth.
• The agent by which the soul makes use of opportunities due to the circumstances of birth.
• The awakener of the Christ Consciousness resident in the unconscious mind of every soul.
Another particularly significant portion of this reading concerns the distinction between Jesus and the Christ—a topic explored in more depth in chapter 7, “Esoteric Christianity.” In other readings, we find not only the idea that “Jesus is the pattern” but that the “power is in the Christ.” That is to say, Jesus was a man who was one incarnation of a soul that had many lifetimes, whereas Christ is a consciousness to which a soul can attain. In this reading, the mission of the soul we know as Jesus is clarified.
However, Edgar Cayce’s answer regarding Jesus’s past lives leaves us bewildered. Thomas Sugrue complicates matters by putting the question of Jesus’s past lives and the Christ’s past lives in a single question. Cayce responds that the Christ had incarnations as Enoch and Melchizedek, but then he describes another sequence of lifetimes belonging to a soul that became Jesus, including Joseph, Joshua, and Jeshua. Does this latter sequence denote a new phase of the same soul’s development? We can’t be sure—it’s open to interpretation.
The final question-and-answer exchange may seem like a request for personal advice on Sugrue’s part. Up to this point, Cayce has presented a thoughtful dissertation on metaphysics, a clairvoyant view of the structure of the universe and human history. Now comes the twist: Cayce adds a moral dimension. Don’t try to “go around the Cross,” he states. There is no real understanding of all these matters—creation, the past lives of Jesus, or anything else—unless one also embraces the meaning of self-sacrifice.
The passage reminds us of Gandhi’s famous warning: “Be on guard against science without humanity, politics without principle, knowledge without character, wealth without work, commerce without morality, pleasure without consciousness, and work without sacrifice.” Edgar Cayce seems to be speaking in the same spirit: Don’t collect knowledge of higher matters unless you also have the idealism and the will to put them into practice. Don’t explore the mysteries of philosophy and psychology unless you’re willing to surrender your own personal agenda and sacrifice your own limited goals in living. That willingness is the most telling aspect of Cayce’s or any authentic spiritual philosophy.
THE READING
THIS PSYCHIC READING, 5749-14,
WAS GIVEN ON MAY 14, 1941,
AT THE REQUEST OF THOMAS SUGRUE.
The conductor was Hugh Lynn Cayce.
HLC: You will have before you the inquiring mind of the entity, Thomas Sugrue, present in this room, and certain of the problems which confront him in composing the manuscript of There Is a River.
&n
bsp; The entity is now ready to describe the philosophical concepts which have been given through this source, and wishes to parallel and align them with known religious tenets, especially those of Christian theology. The entity does not wish to set forth a system of thought, nor imply that all questions of a philosophical nature can be answered through this source—the limitations of the finite mind prevent this.
But the entity wishes to answer those questions which will naturally arise in the mind of the reader, and many of the questions which are being asked by all people in the world today. Therefore the entity presents certain problems and questions, which you will answer as befits the entity’s understanding and the task of interpretation before him.
The Essential Edgar Cayce Page 6