The Essential Edgar Cayce (16 page)

That is the attitude that the self shall hold towards those problems where there are disputes, discouragings, disappointments. Yea, they oft arise in the experience of all. But think, O Child, how oft thou must have disappointed thy Maker, when He hath given thee the opportunity and calls, “The day of the Lord is at hand,” to all of those who will hear His voice.

Put ye on, then, the whole armor of God, the breastplate of righteousness, the sword of the spirit of truth.
Know
in
Whom
ye have believed, as well as in what ye believe.
Live
each day in such a manner as to indicate to everyone ye meet that thou hast an answer for the faith that prompts thee to act in this or that manner.

Be not discouraged because the way seems hard at times. Know that He heareth thee. For as He hath given, “If ye will keep my law—” And what is His law? It is to love the Lord, to eschew evil—which is the whole duty of man—love thy neighbor as thyself.

This brings into the consciousness that peace which each soul seeks, and brings with same healing—not only of body but of mind, and keeps the attunement with the spirit of truth.

Know, too, that His spirit—God’s spirit, the Father in the Christ, through the Holy Spirit—beareth witness with thy spirit. And though there comes periods when there are the temptations from all manners of sources,
hear not
those that deny that He hath come in the flesh. Listen to those that bespeak of the cross as the way. Harken not in any manner to those who deny the cross or the cup of bitterness in death.

These be the channels, these be the ways that the blind leading the blind, both fall into the pit that separateth the soul from that patience, that of Abraham’s bosom. “By faith are ye healed, not of thyself—it is the gift of God.”

Let love be abroad, in thy mind, in thy understanding. For the Lord hath looked on thee and loved thee, and hath shown thee the way. Harken to His voice, “Be not afraid—it is I that would speak to thee and thy heart.”

Love the Lord. Love His ways. Be patient, be understanding, and He will bring it to pass in thy consciousness of His walking and talking with thee.

Ready for questions.

Let thy prayer oft be:

Lord, I am Thine. Use me as Thou seest fit—that I may be the greater channel of blessings to those that Thou would, through my effort, bring to Thy understanding. I seek only in the name of the Christ.

We are through.

PHYSICAL FITNESS

This reading, 341-31, one of Edgar Cayce’s best, spotlights the universal principles of good health, of which
balance
is key. While the concept of balance sounds simple enough, you need to work to maintain balance in your life so that no part of you gets shortchanged. Understanding balance superficially may tempt you to neatly compartmentalize your life into periods of time that allow you to devote attention to each aspect of your life one by one. But the reading goes deeper than that and shows how the physical, mental, and spiritual interrelate. Their mutual inter-dependency is the essence of Cayce’s message.

Reading 341-31, in fact, seems to emphasize
not
compartmentalization but discovering how the many aspects of life hang together. For example, consider this admonition found in the reading: “Know how to apply the rules of
metaphysical
operations to a corncob.” There’s really only one universe, in other words, not a metaphysical realm separate from a physical realm. What works in one dimension should work in others as well, and rules governing the mental have counterparts in the physical and the spiritual. What works on a grand scale should work on a less grand scale the same way. As Edgar Cayce puts it in the reading, “. . . each cell . . . each corpuscle, is a whole
universe
in itself.” And consider the way human anatomy can depict a psychological truth symbolically: Blood passes through the liver twice for every time it passes through the heart, just as we should “think twice before [we] speak once.”

True balance, then, requires sensitivity to
interrelationships,
not a checklist of all the good deeds we can squeeze into a day. Unfortunately, a checklist is how some people try to achieve health; and yet, for all their hectic efforts, they often undermine their own physical well-being.

Cayce’s version of what happens to food when it’s eaten and then digested is an excellent illustration of his philosophy of health. Physical conditions beyond the digestive organs play an important role, and his son Hugh Lynn, the recipient of the reading, was told to make sure both his physical body and his mind were exercised sufficiently, even when “tired,” so that his whole being would respond properly to his diet.

Later, Cayce encouraged Hugh Lynn to try a visualization exercise while he ate—“That thou eatest,
see
it
doing
that
thou
would
have
it do”—a clear illustration of mind-body interaction. In fact, this simple exercise is one of the best ways to verify Cayce’s approach of using the mental to enhance the physical.

Even more dramatic, though, is his reference to the placebo effect: “Give one a dose of clear
water,
with the impression that it will act as salts.” The impact of mental expectation on the physical body vividly demonstrates the mind-body connection. Edgar Cayce was ahead of his time in pointing out how significant this phenomenon really is.

Also in this reading, Cayce refers to Daniel in the Bible, explaining how food can stimulate states of consciousness. By self-observation, we may have already seen hints of this relationship between body and mind. An area ripe for research, preliminary findings regarding nutrition and mental illness suggest that certain foods, such as sugar and white flour may aggravate mental disorders.

What also makes reading 341-31 special is its
spiritual
component. While many medical researchers today recognize the link between body and mind, spiritual needs must be included as well. We must to have a purpose in life, and to achieve that purpose means appreciating our bodies as gifts from God, as vehicles by which we can serve the divine plan. Engaging the spiritual in a balanced lifestyle also means looking for the spirit living among us, expecting to see God in the midst of the material world, “in the wind, the sun, the earth, the flowers, the inhabitants
of
the earth.”

Surely, the principles of Edgar Cayce are right on the cutting edge of today’s philosophy of health. But as encouraging as new developments may be, he calls us to an even greater vision.

THE READING

THIS PSYCHIC READING, 341-31,
WAS GIVEN BY EDGAR CAYCE ON MARCH 10, 1931.
The conductor was Gertrude Cayce.

[The first few paragraphs contained specific physical advice rather than general guidelines, and they have been omitted here.]

EC:
. . . It would be well for the body to so conduct, so arrange the activities of the body as to be better
balanced
as to the mental and the physical attributes of the body. Take more outdoor exercise, that—that brings into play the muscular forces of the body. It isn’t that the mental should be numbed, or should be cut off from their operations or their activities—but make for a more evenly, more perfectly balanced body-physical
and
mental. Know how to apply the rules of
metaphysical
operations to a corncob, or to a fence rail, or to a hammer, an axe, a walking cane, as well as the
theories
of this, that, or other mind, that in nine cases in ten is seen to become a storehouse for mental deficiencies of
physical
energies! Now get the difference! It is not mental unbalance, but a mental body may be so
overused
as to allow physical energies to become
detrimental
forces
in a physical body;
for each energy
must
expend itself in
some
direction, even as a thought that takes form brings in to being a mental image. Is that image in the position of being a
building
force cooperative with the energies of the physical body? Or do they
destroy
some motive force in the physical without allowing an outlet for its activity?

Then, be a well-
rounded
body. Take specific,
definite
exercises morning and evening. Make the body
physically,
as well as mentally, tired and those things that have been producing those conditions where sleep, inertia, poisons in system from non-eliminations, will disappear—and so will the body respond to the diets.

Now, in the matter of diets—
one
activity is necessary, if there is to be a mental diet—or if there is to be a diet for a well-rounded
physically
useful,
mentally
useful,
spiritually
useful body. But there is the lack of vitamins as B and C, in this body. One, the C, stamina for mental energies that are carried in the white tissue in nerve energy and plexus. B, as is of calcium, of silicon, of iron. These would be well-balanced, will those of the food values that carry same be taken, but
unless
the activities physical for the body are such as to put same into
activity
they become drosses and set
themselves
to become operative, irrespective of
other
conditions. (This as aside, but as very well in keeping with the circumstances or conditions.) Vitamins in a body are elements that are combative with, or in opposition to, the various activities of a living organism, and may be termed—and well termed—as those of bacilli of any nature within a human or physical organism. That’s what we are talking of, or dealing with in this body.

Now, when these are taken into the system, if they are
not
put to work by the
activities
of the
system
—either physical or mental— they become
destructive
tissue, for they
affect
the plasm [plasma] of the blood supply or the emunctory and lymph which is another name for a portion of a blood supply in a system.

Then, in the meeting of the diet—be sure the activities, physically, and mentally, are in keeping with; and
do not do
these
spasmodically,
but
be
consistent—for the physical body, the mental body, the spiritual body, is as “Grow in grace, in knowledge, in understanding.”

That thou eatest,
see
it
doing
that
thou
would
have
it do. Now there is often considered as to why do those of either the vegetable, mineral, or combination compounds, have different effects under different conditions? It is the
consciousness
of the
individual body!
Give one a dose of clear
water,
with the impression that it will act as salts—how often will it act in that manner?

Just as the impressions to the whole of the organism, for each cell of the bloodstream, each corpuscle, is a whole
universe
in itself. Do not eat like a canary and expect to do
manual
labor. Do not eat like a rail splitter and expect to do the work of a mind reader or a university professor, but be
consistent
with those things that make for—even as the
universe
is builded. In the layers of one is dependent upon the activity of another. One that fills the mind, the very being, with an expectancy of God will see His movement, His manifestation, in the wind, the sun, the earth, the flowers, the inhabitant(s)
of
the earth; and so as is builded in the body, is it to gratify
just
an appetite, or is it taken to fulfill an office that
will
the better make, the better magnify, that the body, the mind, the soul,
has
chosen to stand
for?
and it will not matter so much what, where, or
when
—but knowing
that
it is consistent with that—that is desired to be accomplished
through
that body!

As has been given of old, when the children of Israel stood with the sons of the heathen and all ate from the king’s table, that which was taken that only exercised the imagination of the body in physical desires—as strong drink, strong meats, condiments that magnify desires within the body—this builded as Daniel well understood, not for
God’s
service—but he chose rather that the
everyday,
the common things would be given, that the bodies, the minds, might be a more perfect channel for the manifestations of
God;
for the forces of the Creator are in
every
force that is made manifest
in
the earth.

Few are able, even as the prophet of old, to see God in battle, in the shedding of blood, in the thunder, in the lightning, in the earthquake, in the various tumults in nature—but
all
may experience Him in the still small voice within! Do
thou
likewise, and the body is the temple
of
the living God, and is a
reasonable
service that we present same holy and acceptable unto Him.

Just as great a sin to
over
eat as to over drink; to over
think
as to over act!
In
that thou buildest, do even as He. Make thine body, thine
mind,
ready for
every
occasion that arises in the life. Think well on what was given, “
Why
could not
we
cast him out? Such is done only—
only
—through fasting and prayer.” When thou prayest, enter into thine closet—that is, within self—not shutting oneself away from the world, but closing self to God’s
presence,
and pray in secret and the reward will be in the open; for, as was given, “Men do not light a candle and put it under a bushel, but it is set—
set
—on a hill, that it may give
life,
light, unto all.”