None were from the Cayce family. Several knew Edgar well, some didn't. To look at this more closely we first take a look at death.
DEATH - we keep it at arm's length.
- It is announced, not talked about
- It is associated with unpleasant experiences and feelings
- It is an unknown - we really don't understand it
- It is the ultimate mystery
- It is a major subject of personal avoidance
- The Cayce readings suggest that we get more comfortable with the process
- Monks with the Dali Lama process for death for weeks before in small 3'x3' structures
- This life is a speck in the journey of the soul
Stories surrounding an immediate death
- Brother jumps in to save brother from drowning; feels the presence of their dead mother who urges him to release his brother and resurface. He told Edgar Cayce his story, who reinforced that others had similar experiences.
- Hugh Lynn Cayce had a college experience: He had been arguing heavily with his roommate (as freshmen often do) and they had a friend - a sophomore, Gus- who tried to help mediate. Gus didn't believe in psychic stuff (like Hugh Lynn did) or in the Catholic faith (like the roommate did.) One night, Hugh Lynn wakes up and sits up, aware that he was looking down at his own body. He learned that he could leave and enter his body as a spirit. Suddenly, the room filled with a cloud and out of the clour came and hand and voice, belonging to Gus, that said "come on with me - it is so pretty here!) Hugh Lynn became frightened and was immediately back in his body. There was a pounding on his door, someone who came to tell him that Gus had been killed in an accident a short time ago.
- Edgar had his own encounter - leaving his body on a shaft of light. He encountered Death, who didn't look like he though - was round and robust, carrying a pair of scissors. Death is not what people think, it is just a change. Scissors unite by dividing, and divide by uniting.
Death reconnects us to the core vibrations. Death in the flesh is a birth into another realm. - altered state of consciousness.
Death is a change in vibrations, not a disappearance (think of water, ice, steam) or like fan blades that you can see until they're on, then you can't see.
Edgar and Hugh Lynn set up signals to try to communicate with each other - whoever died first.
Hugh Lynn also set up signals with Charles Thomas. When Hugh Lynn died, CT kept looking for them - was alert and aware of looking for the signs. Months went by and CT's wife had a dream- she had several dreams with messages for other people- but after this one she woke Charles Thomas to tell him that Hugh Lynn appeared to her in the back yard. he looked sick - but was trying to get Charles Thomas' attention. She (in the dream) returned to the house and woke CT, who met with Hugh Lynn in the back yard. When asked what was said between the two, his wife simply shook his hand with 3 fingers - one of the signals they had given each other.
**Stan Grof Realms of the Human Unconscious
Licensed to use LSD research in a state psychiatric hospital. There was a case of a middle aged woman who, under LSD, spoke in a foreign (slavic) language. It was an ancient dialect. She described her involvement in a hanging. They were recording this case and asking her questions - she saw an aura around her body and described it as being a peanut shaped light. She could see light flashing between her "peanut body" and her physical body lined up with the chakra points. They concluded that past life memories were carried in the "mental body" with thought patterns that exist after the physical body dies. There is a transfer of energy between these two bodies.
Cayce says that there are three bodies:
1- Physical body
2- Mental body (thought-form) - tiner body or real body
3- Spiritual body or Soul
Life readings mostly asked the question (in some form) "How can I best lead a happy life?"
- all readings address reincarnation
- there are a lot of periods where souls were incarnate at the same time
- Past lives often included souls we are involved with today
- Charles Thomas had a life reading at weeks old that said, as an aside, that he had been his current mother's father in ancient China.
We don't need to look too far to find the necessary means to work out issues in this life.
- readings talk about souls returning to another body
Soul has three parts:
1- Will - the choice-making faculty
2- Spirit - interchangeable with "God" or "Creator" - the aspect of God that lives in us
3- Mind - as a process
Souls move in and out of the earth and are also involved in other dimensions
There are 8 dimensions, each labeled with a planet name, but we are not talking about the soul actually being on that physical planet - more a vibration associated with a dimension, not location.
Interplanetary Sojourns of Souls:
- An integral part of the Cayce readings
- There is no time in space
- This is a way to digest lessons learned in the earth dimension
**Thomas Sugrue There is a River
14 readings on philosophy chapter (#5749) one of the most important sets of readings
Reincarnation (def) - return of soul to physical plane:
What is reincarnation? A cowboy asked his friend.
It starts, his old pal told him, when your life comes to an end.
They wash your neck and comb your hair and clean your fingernails,
And put you in a padded box away from life’s travails.
The box and you goes in a hole that’s been dug in the ground.
Reincarnation starts in when you’re planted neath that mound.
Them clods melt down, just like the box, and you who is inside.
And that’s when you begin your transformation ride.
And in a while the grass will grow upon your rendered mound,
Until some day, upon that spot, a lonely flower is found.
And then a horse may wander by and graze upon that flower
That once was you, and now has become your vegetated bower.
Now, the flower that the horse done eat, along with his other feed,
Makes bone and fat and muscle essential to the steed.
But there’s a part that he can’t use and so it passes through.
And there it lies upon the ground, this thing that once was you.
And if perchance, I should pass by and see this on the ground,
I’ll stop awhile and ponder at this object that I’ve found.
I’ll think about Reincarnation and life and death and such,
And come away concludin’, why, you ain’t changed all that much.
-Wallace McRae
THOSE of the 18 people THAT CHARLES THOMAS KNEW:
#404 - Hannah Miller - gentle, firm, positive attitude, quiet, cheerful manner, baked bread to give to others, service oriented, loyal friend, member of the Glad Helpers, Bible study member, had some psychic ability (she knew about the fish that young CT caught and broke rules to go to tell his dad about).
#560 - Edith Edmonds (her sister, Florence (#993) was more likely to be finished from CT's perception) - quiet, restrained, percieved as aloof, well groomed, dear friend, Glad Helpers, had sci-fi dreams (she once went with a friend, Ruth, and CT to get 'good' water for Ruth. She accidentally slammed Ruth's hand in the door. CT wanted to go to the hospital - the hand was puffy and blue- but Edith wanted to pray and healed Ruth's hand - no pain, swelling or bruising.) NUDGE TO PAY MORE ATTENTION TO PRAYER LIFE
#987 - Juliette Ashley - deep spiritual commitment, studied with Ghandi, friends with Marilyn Monrow, Ava Gabor; splashy, very Hollywood-esque - she didn't hold grudges, and reading said to keep working on patience (which appears as selfishness but isn't)
#1472 - Julia Chandler - bright, critical, focused, ambitious, committed, hones, strong-willed, excellent businesswoman (was manager of Empire State Building), service oriented, a fire-cracker. Reading says a teacher of Jesus in past life - Essene; Liked to give constructive criticism but oblivious to the hurt she caused. Was on ARE Board of Trustees.
#2504- JW Hough - real estate developer in Norfolk - dishonest in business, deep soul changes occurred with stay at ARE hospital for illness.
7 FACTORS SHARED BY THE 18 PEOPLE:
1- Fruits of the Spirit:
-Peacefulness- eschew violence; practice quiet and stillness; not agitated
-Gentleness- not harsh, tender
- Kindness- helping with compassion, happy service
-Endurance- bearing stress with patience
-Faith/Hope- to be awakened; knowledge of creative force
-Love - affection, positive thoughts
-Joy - excitement caused by expecting good
-Honesty- free from fraud/deception
"Against these things there is no karmic law" - God's grace manifests through these- to live and walk in the fruits of the spirit is to love God.
Soul's mission-
1- to find individual mission/talent
2- to further the collective mission with all "Do what you can, moment by moment, to make this world a better place.
- bring more of the fruits of the spirit into this world
- choose the road that leads to more peace, love, honesty
This is done through small things - the story of the husband and wife who argue and he ends up breaking her zipper. She comes home later and, seeing him working beneath the car, take the opportunity to try to break his zipper - only to find out that it is their next door neighbor.
2- Grudges
(Check out reading #2329)
Lady, married, with successful husband, wants to be actress. Goes to Cayce for a reading to ask "Should I pursue acting?" The answer came to forget acting, the husband was her sole purpose in life. She had been hurting him by having affairs, which were partly justified because of his lack of ability to have sex with her since the day of their marriage. (She doesn't like this answer and asks for another reading.) Later readings told that they were a couple in France during the Crusades and that he forced her to wear a chastity belt - instead of trusting her - while he went to war. Charles Thomas followed up with her years later to learn that the first reading really shook her. She began working on her marriage and at the time of his death, they were extremely close.
Readings urge the importance of turning loose of grudges. Most of these are tiny things, not particularly large things that eat at us.
3- Attitude of Service
Readings talk about this being a life-focus attitude, an urge for good. This attitude is toward people, plants, animals, life, work, family, etc - all aspects of life. It is the giving of self.
4- Spiritual Journey
Committing time and energy to the belief that there is something past this life- continuity of life.
5- Ideals
"How can I grow my soul?" - the answer is through ideals. You should set:
- A spiritual ideal - this is the most important - someone, something, feeling, that is most important (Jeuss, Yogi, love, mind, God, oneness...)
- Mental ideals - attitudes- these move us toward our spiritual ideal
- Physical ideals - actions - these move us toward our mental ideals
6- Turning stumbling blocks to stepping stones
#256- Obstacle may bring a strength of purpose
#987- Errors disrupting circumstances "What is to be learned from this?" every soul has trials
Covered -physical disability or illness; psychological hurt; death of a loved one
7- Meditation (in 14 of the 18)
"Meditation is important"
Some refer to meditation in past lives
Most talked about/least practiced spiritual discipline
defined as LISTENING to God (vs. prayer - speaking to God)
Key turning point in meditation is to stop talking to yourself
-find a phrase, affirmation, mantra, mandala, etc.)
-focus on it until it becomes a feeling, not words
-quiet that running commentary in your head - not easy to do even after years of meditating
-takes a lot of practice
-allows for movement of energy through the body
-PRAY following a time of meditaiton
-allows for balancing of physical body systems
-Karmic memory stored in chakras - to move energy through chakras with spiritual focus we trigger memory patterns from past lives
-Read the 18 readings and look for the word "meditation"
