From
his deep attunement to the Mind of God, that Universal Consciousness,
Edgar Cayce stated that mind is the light, the builder, and the
bridge to liberation and enlightenment. Here is his perspective
on the mind:
“The Spirit moved ... and there was Light -- Mind. The
Light became the light of men.”
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
How? The Mind of God moved, and matter, form, came into being.
Mind, then, in God the Father, is the builder. How much more,
then, would or should Mind be the builder in the experience of
those that have put on Christ or God, in Him, in His coming into
the earth?”
“Each entity finds itself in a three-dimensional phase
of existence or experience: the world without, the world within,
and the mind that may span or bridge the two.”
Mind is the light, the builder, and the bridge between spirit
and body.
He explained that life, all life, begins in the spirit, which
is the creative force that brings all into existence. Then mind
takes this life essence, and builds with it. Finally, the physical
is the result: “Mind the builder, the spirit the creator,
the material [is] that created. Great truth! Keep it before you.”
It certainly is a powerful concept to keep before us. All outer
“things” have their origin in the unseen spiritual
forces, then find expression in the mind, and ultimately appear
out here in the physical. So often we physical beings think that
the outer, physical forces are the more powerful. But Cayce frequently
encouraged us to accept that “the unseen forces are greater
than the seen.” If we want to change something, it must
begin in the spirit and the mind.
“That you think, that you put your Mind to work upon, to
live upon, to feed upon, to live with, to abide with, to associate
with in the mind, that your soul-body becomes! That is the law.
That is the destiny.” He expands upon this: “Mind
[is] the builder, the appreciator, the paralleler, the drawer
of conclusions, the chooser....” And, Cayce says, mind is
driven by “the ideal.”
The Ideal is Mind’s Navigator
“As you contemplate, as you meditate, as you look upon
the Mind, know the Mind has many windows. And as you look out
of your inner self, know where you are looking, [where] you are
seeking. What is your ideal? What would you have your mind-body
to become?”
In a deep contemplation session on this teaching, my deeper mind
saw the ancient boat of Pharaoh, with its twenty-four oarsmen
and the navigator’s hut on the bow. As I sought to know
the meaning of this imagery, Cayce’s teaching about the
twelve nobles before the Throne of God in the Book of the Revelation
came to mind. He said that they represent the twelve paired cranial
nerves (24) in our own heads! As these nerves turn their attention
away from worldly pursuits and toward heavenly ones, they bring
a new heaven and a new earth, meaning a new mind, a new body.
As I reflected on this, I realized that the twenty-four oarsmen
on Pharaoh’s boat represented these same nerves and their
ability to bring us across the barrier that the Nile River represented,
that barrier between what the Egyptians called “the land
of the living,” which is the place of the physically incarnate,
and “the land of the dead,” the realm of the spiritually
living. I realized that the navigator was indeed the ideal held
as we sought to cross the barrier between this world and the spiritual.
“That upon which it [the mind] feeds it becomes. The most
important experience of this or any individual entity is to first
know what is the ideal -- spiritually. Who and what is your pattern?”
Cayce frequently said that Christ is the consciousness and Jesus
is the pattern. Jesus, for Cayce, is the ideal pattern for humans
to use to build their own mind -- just as one would use a pattern
to make clothes from new fabric. Jesus exemplified a human at
one with God and making that oneness manifest in his life among
others. Cayce often noted that Jesus simply went around doing
good according to God’s inner guidance to Him. An ideal
way for all of us to live.
We have covered the topic of ideals in detail in a previous issue,
but for our purposes here, consider this from Cayce: “What,
then, is an ideal? As concerning your fellow man, He gave, ‘As
you would that others do to you, do you even so to them’;
take no thought, worry not, be not overanxious about the body.
For He knows what you have need of. In the place you are, in the
consciousness in which you find yourself, is that which is needed
today, now, for your greater, your better, your more wonderful
unfoldment. This is that attitude of mind that puts away hates,
malice, anxiety, jealousy. And it creates in their stead the fruits
of the spirit: love, patience, mercy, longsuf-fering, kindness,
gentleness. Against these there is no law. They break down barriers;
they bring peace and harmony; they bring the outlook upon life
of not finding fault because someone ‘forgot,’ someone’s
judgment was bad, someone was selfish today. These you can over-look,
for so did He.”
Such a state of attitude, of mind, toward life sets up a powerful
map for navigating oneself through the day’s challenges
and opportunities. This is an ideal, a navigational star by which
to guide oneself each day. With this ideal, the mind approaches
every obstacle, every crosscurrent, every undertow, and winds
its way through them by holding to the ideal, the map set before
us as the best way. This is the power of an ideal held by mind
as we live life. Yet, as we grow and learn, we may see the need
to adjust our ideal. Cayce encouraged us to write our ideals down,
but to do so in pencil. As we gain a greater under-standing we
see over the next mountain, we gain an increasingly better perspective
of the whole truth, the way, and we adjust our ideal accordingly.
Thoughts are Things
Another fundamental Cayce teaching is: “Thoughts are things,
and as their currents run they become miracles or crimes in the
experiences of individual life.”
For the deeply attuned Cayce, thoughts were as real as actions.
In fact, during his readings from the Book of Life, he had to
strain to determine whether the person he was reading for had
actually done something or had just thought about doing it! “Thoughts
are things; just as the Mind is as concrete as a post or tree,”
and the Akashic Record, the Book of Life, records them as such.
This is a hard one to hear. The first time I read it, it pained
me to think how many times my thoughts had done harm to another
and placed a negative influence in the Collective Mind. Watching
our thoughts is important.
Watch Self Pass By
Cayce was once asked: “How may I learn to know self as
I am known?” He answered: “Being able to literally
stand aside and watch self pass by! Take the time to occasionally
be sufficiently introspective of that, that may happen in self’s
relation to others, to see the reactions of others as to that
as was done by self; for no man lives to himself, no man dies
to him-self.... Be able, then, to see self as others see you.
Stand aside and watch self pass by!” This is a powerful
learning tool.
For Cayce, this was not just good mental advice, it was good
physical advice: “If the body will watch self and the reactions
of the various foods or preparations, and draw a comparison from
what may be termed a combination of all the various authorities,
then the body will find what is best for self. See?” Want
to know the best diet for yourself? Watch how the various foods
and cooking methods affect you. This information will be better
than anyone else can give you, because it is revealed in your
own body.
The Subliminal Mind
Dreams and meditations are two of Cayce most recommended means
for fully engaging the power of our minds. According to Cayce,
our subliminal mind will engage with our outer mind to review
and discuss all influences: “In this there is seen both
the action of the subconscious and subliminal mind and the physical
mind, reasoning together, as it were, of the past, present, and
future conditions as relating to the mental attitude of the entity;
for, as is seen in the final analysis of the real Mind, the Builder,
and as this is presented in the view of the dreams, the meditations
of the entity in those days when the inner consciousness of the
entity builded in the mental forces those conditions as would
bring the great joy, peace, and happiness to the entity, these,
as we see, took on physical forms in the mental aspirations of
the entity.”
Seek within ourselves through dreams, meditations, and deep reflections,
and our subliminal mind will convey the insights.
Even God will help, as seen in this Cayce reading: “Thus
the individual entity finds ... that the first creation of God,
the mind, is the way; or the way through which light may come
to the entity from the Father. Even as He brought to remembrance
the promise, for memory brought in the light of consciousness
is the outpouring of spirit. (Memory is the mind of the soul.)
Keep not only the body clean, the mind pure, but in the light
of the spiritual forces as aid -- keep in at-onement with same.”
[The parenthetical statement about memory is Cayce’s.]
Subconscious: The Police
“The only real guide that may be relied upon is that subconscious
force that is as the police to the entity, both in the physical,
material, and in the spiritual planes. And, as this [the subconscious]
will guide and direct the entity, in that same way and manner
as the police in their regular capacity ... in the physical life.”
What a fascinating concept. Our subconscious is our conscience,
our policing power. “That is, the police, the subconscious
mind, represent the law that guides, directs, and that way upon
which the entity, which any entity, may rely for the enforcement
of that which will keep in peace, in war, in any condition, that
straight way for the best interest of each and every individual.”
However, even as physical police departments can become corrupt,
so can our subconscious police become misdirected by powerful
suggestions of self-doubt, self-condemnation. “In the same
way and manner as these (the police) may become subject to all
of the vicissitudes that are ever present within the conditions
in life, so may the subconscious forces, misdirected, misguided,
or seeking to belittle the self ... through its experience in
the Earth’s plane.” The only way to protect against
this misdirection is to hold to a higher ideal that lifts us beyond
our self-doubt, self-condemnation. God does not condemn us. God
has erected no barrier. Self is the only obstacle to full enlightenment
and reunion.
Levels of Consciousness
Cayce identifies three levels of consciousness or dimensions
of mind: conscious, subconscious, and superconscious.
Conscious mind is the level that we are most familiar with. It
is the level within which our personality and three-dimensional
self develops and has much of its activity.
The subconscious is that part of our minds that bridges the outer
self with the spiritual self. According to Cayce, the subconscious
is both in the body, through the autonomic system, and beyond
the body, in the soul realms of telepathy, non-physical life,
and timelessness. This mind is the mind of the soul, says Cayce.
As the mind of our outer self is the conscious mind and that portion
containing our personality, so the subconscious mind contains
our developing “individuality,” which Cayce identifies
as our true self.
The superconscious level is the portion made in the image of
the Creator, as recorded in Genesis. It is that portion of us
that is a god or godling, as the ancient Egyptians termed it.
Cayce explained that the superconscious is a thing apart from
anything earthly, and only makes its presence known or is knowable
when the soul-self lifts itself and portions of the conscious
mind up into the vast, expansive level that is the superconscious.
This is the portion of our being that Cayce referred to when he
said that “not only God is God, but self is a part of that
oneness.”
To know the superconscious, Cayce says that one must learn to
achieve deep levels of meditation. He said that if a dream feels
more like a vision than a dream, then it most likely originated
from this highest level of consciousness.
At death, the conscious mind is gradually absorbed into the subconscious
(the mind of the surviving soul), and the subconscious becomes
the operative mind, with the super-conscious now in the position
the subconscious held while we were incarnate. Later, upon reincarnation,
the subconscious projects another portion of itself into the newly
developing outer, three-dimensional mind. Intuitions, “knowings,”
and psychic perceptions come from the projected subconscious.
Cayce explains that not all of the subconscious is projected;
some of it remains in very high levels of perception and activity.
But the portion that is in the body maintains the autonomic systems
of the body (respiration, circulation, digestion, etc.) and the
seven spiritual centers or chakras, which correspond with the
seven endocrine glands.
We may feel that we do not know our subconscious soul-self, but
we do, and we are comfortable with it. For example, when we are
waking with a dream, but notice that our bladder is full and go
empty it, only to return to the bed with no recall of the dream,
then we have just experienced our two selves. One is the dreaming
mind, the subconscious soul-mind, and the other is in charge of
the bladder and the central nervous system that moves the body
to the bathroom (somatic system). Yet, notice how comfortable
we were in the dream state. Notice how we felt that WE were dreaming.
That is because this is the true self, and we know it well. Yet,
there is a veil that drops when we move outward, a veil that is
opaque. The outer self cannot see back through that veil, cannot
recall the contents of the dream, because it never had the dream
and was only awakened when the physical body needed to move. Now
you can see how we can die to this body and this world, and still
live, still be active. Sleep, the shadow of death, is that condition
in miniature each night.
Mind is our true nature. It is that portion of us that lives
forever. What would it be like to live our lives as minds in bodies,
rather than bodies with minds? Surprisingly, Cayce considered
the mind to be a savior, a redeemer. It is that portion of our
being that can mend and restore us. Let’s engage our minds
and fully awaken to our spiritual selves.
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