The Essential Edgar Cayce

by Thurston, Mark

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ESOTERIC CHRISTIANITY

  EDGAR CAYCE CHALLENGES US TO SEE THE LIFE, THE TEACHINGS, and the importance of the historical Jesus in a whole new light. He indicates that there is lost wisdom about the events of Jesus’s life and the very meaning of his coming two millennia ago. He presents Jesus as the incarnation of a soul, who, in many ways, is very much like us, including having past lives, sometimes as known figures from history. And Cayce proposes that to fully understand the meaning of Christ, we must recognize, awaken in ourselves, and live an internalized Christ Consciousness.

  And while his ideas about Jesus and the Christ Consciousness are radical, in many other ways Edgar Cayce was rather conservative theologically. It would be misleading to call him a fundamentalist, and yet his teachings assert many of the more traditional views of Christianity, including the Immaculate Conception, the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, the Second Coming, and various miraculous events recorded in the Old and New Testaments. There is also the feeling of his endorsing Christianity as the pinnacle of religious movements, even though Cayce himself professed an embracing and inclusive attitude toward the religions of the world.

  Perhaps most difficult for Christians to accept is Cayce’s distinction between Jesus—the man, the soul—and the Christ, as a spiritual power, and a universal consciousness. Instead of seeing Jesus Christ as virtual first and last names of a being who was radically different from us, Cayce called Jesus our “elder brother”—that is, someone who is on the same path as we and yet is more mature than we are and more awakened. In the esoteric Christianity of Edgar Cayce, Jesus is the life pattern for us to emulate, whereas the Christ is the spiritual power that we invoke to guide and heal us.

  Cayce also proposed that Jesus had esoteric teachings for his closest followers that are only hinted at in the biblical accounts. Their flavor is evoked in the Gospel of Thomas, discovered at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945, just after Cayce’s death.

  One example is the Lord’s Prayer. Cayce indicates that it is special not only because it is the only prayer that we have a record of as coming directly from Jesus; there is a deeper meaning and purpose to its words. It is a kind of mantra, in that the words have a universally evocative power. The various lines of the prayer are keyed to the seven spiritual centers, the chakras, and when properly applied it has an awakening effect on the chakras. The correspondence is as follows:

  “Our Father who art in heaven” = the seventh chakra (the highest).

  “Hallowed be Thy name” = the sixth chakra.

  “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” = the fifth chakra.

  “In earth as it is in heaven” = earth refers collectively to the four lower chakras, heaven refers to the three upper chakras.

  “Give us this day our daily bread” = the first chakra (the lowest).

  “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” = the third chakra.

  “Lead us not into temptation” = the second chakra.

  “But deliver us from evil” = the fourth chakra.

  “For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever” = sequentially, the fifth, sixth, and seventh chakras.

  But just knowing these correspondences is not enough. The prayer has the power to enlighten only to the extent that we experience the meaning of each line of the prayer while attending to the body. It is what in the passage below Cayce calls “the response to the mental representation.” That is, something can happen in the mind, or the “mental body,” that connects us to the essential meaning of the words.

  For example, while the meditator says “Forgive us our debts [or trespasses] as we forgive our debtors [or those who trespass against us],” the whole point is to feel the meaning underlying the words. Can the meditator feel forgiveness toward others, and then, in turn, feel forgiven him- or herself? If so, then Cayce suggests there is an “opening of the center,” an awakening of the spiritual potential that resides there. And with that opening comes energy, which may not be felt immediately by the meditator but which causes something profound to happen inside the meditator. A connection has been made to greater vitality in life, what Jesus referred to as “the bread ye know not of.”

  Q Does the outline of the Lord’s Prayer as placed on our chart have any bearing on the opening of the centers?

  A Here is indicated the manner in which it was given as to the purpose for which it was given; not as an ONLY way but as a way that would answer for those that sought to be—as others—seekers for A way, AN understanding, to the relationships to the Creative Forces. It bears in relationships to this, then, the proper place.

  Q How should the Lord’s Prayer be used in this connection?

  A As in feeling, as it were, the flow of the meanings of each portion of same throughout the body-physical. For as there is the response to the mental representations of all of these in the MENTAL body, it may build into the physical body in the manner as He, thy Lord, thy Brother, so well expressed in, “I have bread ye know not of.” 281-29

  AWAKENING TO A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST

  No Cayce reading is any clearer than 5749-4 about the promise held out to each of us that we can have a direct, personal relationship with Christ. It was delivered to some of the members of the original “A Search for God” group on a summer afternoon over seventy years ago. Three of those present had their own experiences they were hoping to have interpreted by Cayce. They wondered if their communication with Christ was actually just that.

  From the moment Edgar Cayce began, it was clear that this reading was going to be remarkable. In well over ninety-nine percent of the other readings, his own superconscious mind offered the information, but reading 5749-4 seems to be one of those rare occasions when he channeled the consciousness of some other being—in this case, the apostle John. There is a certain ambiguity about how much of the reading is John and how much is Cayce, but in at least three places John announces himself specifically.

  What makes the reading so special, however, is not so much the unexpected communication from John as the promise it offers: Anyone who sincerely wants to make direct contact with Christ, and acts in such a way as to reflect that desire, can expect to make contact.

  Where is Christ, anyway? Where is he found? This reading speaks to those questions directly. Yes, it’s natural for the physical, conscious mind to think in terms of time and space; they are the familiar categories that help us understand things. But it gets frustrating trying to pin Christ down to a location so that we can go there and make personal contact. He is not on the earthly plane in corporeal form. Instead, Cayce suggests that if we need to locate Christ spatially, then we should understand him as being “in the individual entity”—that is, he’s found within us, and it is a relationship that becomes conscious through attunement.

  Attunement is the essential factor that makes personal relationships possible. Christ Consciousness is a universal consciousness residing in every soul. And it is the consciousness of an extraordinary historical being who lived twenty centuries ago in the physical dimension and who still exists as an active, living presence in the spiritual dimension.

  How do we get in contact with him? By means of a resonating vibration of sorts that is possible when we reach a state of wholeness, a condition in which we feel in sync with ourselves so that our desires and our talents are in alignment. We’ve probably all had times when we experienced that kind of wholeness, and perhaps then we also intuited just how connected we are with the spiritual.

  Attunement is central to many Cayce readings, including these on meditation and healing. Attunement involves the body, the mind, and the free will achieving harmony with the spirit. It’s tempting to leave out the body and believe that contacting Christ is purely a psychological matter. But as this reading points out, attunement gets right down to each atom physically.

  The mind factor includes two keys: faith, which is knowing that Christ can and will communicate with us directly and which has a potent
, attuning effect on us; and surrendering fear, as when Christ, in initiating contact, so often says, “Be not afraid,” words which may be necessary because something in us shies away from such an encounter. Fear more than any other emotion can block attunement.

  The third attunement factor is the right use of free will, which is something often ignored but which Cayce puts right at the heart of his advice. If any of us wants a relationship with Christ, we’ve got to actively work to “[make] the will of self one with His will.” More than anything else, it means letting our deeds reflect our beliefs and faith. It means applying what’s in our hearts. The promise offered in this reading—actually, the reaffirmation of the promise in the Bible—is that Christ will come to anyone who wants it of his or her own free will and then “acts in love to make [it] possible.”

  Deep down inside, each of us knows just what that means. Oh, if only I knew for sure exactly what Christ wants me to be doing, we may protest. But in the quiet place of knowing, a place we often don’t like admitting knowing about, we’re absolutely certain of what’s required. We know that we must take the time to be present for other people and really hear what they are saying, rather than being caught up in the busy demands of our own “things to do.” We know we must invest quality and excellence in all our efforts, especially those that affect other people. And, just as surely, in that quiet place of knowing, it has been revealed to us that we are quite capable of putting the Christ spirit first in our lives. What’s asked of us is not outrageous, not unreasonable, “not grievous.” It’s within our reach.

  THE READING

  THIS PSYCHIC READING, 5749-4,

  WAS GIVEN BY EDGAR CAYCE ON AUGUST 6, 1933.

  The conductor was Gertrude Cayce.

  GC: You will have before you the Norfolk Study Group #1, members of which are present in this room, who seek more knowledge of, and that a reading be given on, Jesus the Christ. We would appreciate all knowledge that might be given on Him at this time, after which you will answer the questions that may be asked by each individual present.

  EC: Yes, we have the group as gathered here; and their work, their desires. We will seek that as may be given at this time.

  “I, John, would speak with thee concerning the Lord, the Master, as He walked among men. As given, if all that He did and said were written, I suppose the world would not contain all that may be said.”

  As He, the Christ, is in His glory that was ordained of the Father, He may be approached by those who in sincerity and earnestness seek to know Him—and to be guided by Him. As He has given, by faith all things are made possible through belief in His name.

  Believest thou? Then let thine activities bespeak that thou wouldst have, in spirit, in truth.

  Seek, then, each in your own way and manner, to magnify that you, as souls, as beings, would make manifest of His love, in the way He will show thee day by day.

  As He came into the world, as man knows the world, then He became as man; yet in the spirit world He seeks to make manifest that sought by those who do His biddings.

  For, as He gave, “If ye love me, keep my commandments. These are not new, and are not grievous, that ye love one another—even as the Father loveth me.”

  Q [993]: Please explain why during meditation last Monday noon I had the longing to seek more knowledge of, and a reading on, Jesus the Christ.

  A The inner self approached nearer the attunement of the consciousness of the Christ presence. The Christ Consciousness is a universal consciousness of the Father Spirit. The Jesus consciousness is that man builds as body worship. In the Christ Consciousness, then, there is the oneness of self, self’s desires, self’s abilities, made in at-onement with the forces that may bring to pass that which is sought by an individual entity or soul. Hence at that particular period self was in accord. Hence the physical consciousness had the desire to make it an experience of the whole consciousness of self.

  Seek this the more often. He will speak with thee, for His promises are true—every one of them.

  Q [560]: Please explain: While meditating I had the realization of the forces within and the forces without being the one and the same force. Then as if someone said: “Why not look to the within?” When I turned to the within, I received a realization of the Christ which seemed to take form in body.

  A In this the body-consciousness experienced much that “I, even John, experienced when I looked behind me from the cave and saw that the without and within are one,” when the desires of the heart make each atom of the physical body vibrate with the consciousness of, the belief and the faith and the presence of, the Christ life, the Christ Consciousness.

  Life is an essence of the Father. The Christ, taking up the life of the man Jesus, becomes life in glory; and may be glorified in each atom of a physical body that attunes self to the consciousness and the will of the Christ Spirit.

  Q [69]: Is the Celestial Sphere a definite place in the universe or is it a state of mind?

  A When an entity, a soul, passes into any sphere, with that it has builded in its celestial body, it must occupy—to a finite mind—space, place, time. Hence, to a finite mind, a body can only be in a place, a position. An attitude, sure—for that of a onement with, or attunement with, the Whole.

  For, God is love; hence occupies a space, place, condition, and is the Force that permeates all activity.

  So, Christ is the ruling force in the world that man, in his finite mind—the material body, must draw to self of that sphere of which the entity, the soul, is a part, of whatever period of experience, to be conscious of an existence in that particular sphere or plane.

  Q Is Jesus the Christ on any particular sphere or is He manifesting on the earth plane in another body?

  A As just given, all power in heaven, in earth, is given to Him who overcame. Hence He is of Himself in space, in the force that impels through faith, through belief, in the individual entity. As a Spirit Entity. Hence not in a body in the earth, but may come at will to him who wills to be one with, and acts in love to make same possible. For, He shall come as ye have seen Him go, in the body He occupied in Galilee. The body that He formed, that was crucified on the cross, that rose from the tomb, that walked by the sea, that appeared to Simon, that appeared to Philip, that appeared to “I, even John.”

  Q Wherever He is, how may I contact Him so that I may see Him and hear Him speak?

  A The making of the will of self one with His will makes a whole attunement with Him. He will, with the making of self in accord and desiring same, speak with thee. “Be not afraid, it is I.”

  Q [585]: Was the vision I saw early one morning several months ago a vision of the Master?

  A A passing shadow, yes. Pray rather to the Son, the Father through the Son, that He walks with thee—and He will walk and talk with thee. Be not satisfied with any other. He may oft give His angels charge concerning thee, yet know the Master’s touch, the Master’s voice; for He may walk and talk with thee. He is the Way; there is no other. He in body suffered; for himself, yea—for thee also. Wilt thou turn, then, to any other?

  Q When Jesus the Christ comes the second time, will He set up His kingdom on earth and will it be an everlasting kingdom?

  A Read His promises in that ye have written of His words, even as “I gave.” He shall rule for a thousand years. Then shall Satan be loosed again for a season.

  Q [379]: How may I raise my vibrations so as to contact the Christ?

  A Making the will, the desire of the heart, one with His, believing in faith, in patience, all becomes possible in Him, through Him to the Father; for He gave it as it is. Believest thou?

  Then, “according to thy faith be it done in thee.”

  We are through.

  A CLAIRVOYANT VIEW OF JESUS THE MAN

  Among the various readings about the life of Jesus, Edgar Cayce sometimes tried to paint a graphic picture of certain biblical events. It was almost as if he were trying to do what modern parapsychologists call remote viewing. He acted as a c
lairvoyant reporter, offering details about a given story in the Bible, and in such a way that it becomes more alive to us.

  Of course, none of Cayce’s clairvoyant experiences can be proved. But it’s interesting to note that he sometimes did something similar when reading for someone several hundred miles away. Before giving an answer about a specific health concern or interpreting a dream or doing what that particular reading called for, he might speak in detail about what was happening right at that moment in that person’s life. For example, “not bad-looking pajamas,” or “Yes, she is now waiting on a lady in front of a glass [window] with a knot on the post . . . and [now] the two are sitting together.” In most instances, the person later confirmed that the details were very accurate.

  And so we have evidence of Edgar Cayce’s skills as a remote viewer. Whether he could also travel back in time clairvoyantly is an open question, but readings like 5749-1 below certainly present a provocative and, for some people, inspirational picture.