His words are prophetic even today, as more and more Americans in these unsettled times are turning to psychic explanations for daily events. For example, according to a survey by the National Opinion Research Council nearly half of American adults believe they have been in contact with someone who has died, a figure twice that of ten years earlier. Two-thirds of all adults say they have had an ESP experience; ten years before that figure was only one-half.

Every culture throughout history has made note of its own members’ gifted powers beyond the five senses. These rare individuals held special interest because they seemed able to provide solutions to life’s pressing problems. America in the twenty-first century is no exception.

Edgar Cayce was perhaps the most famous and most carefully documented psychic of our time. He began to use his unusual abilities when he was a young man, and from then on for over forty years he would, usually twice a day, lie on a couch, go into a sleeplike state, and respond to questions. Over fourteen thousand of these discourses, called readings, were carefully transcribed by his secretary and preserved by the Edgar Cayce Foundation in Virginia Beach, Virginia. These psychic readings continue to provide inspiration, insight, and help with healing to tens of thousands of people.

Having only an eighth-grade education, Edgar Cayce lived a plain and simple life by the world’s standards. As early as his childhood in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, however, he sensed that he had psychic ability. While alone one day he had a vision of a woman who told him he would have unusual power to help people. He also related experiences of “seeing” dead relatives. Once, while struggling with school lessons, he slept on his spelling book and awakened knowing the entire contents of the book.

As a young man he experimented with hypnosis to treat a recurring throat problem that caused him to lose his speech. He discovered that under hypnosis he could diagnose and describe treatments for the physical ailments of others, often without knowing or seeing the person with the ailment. People began to ask him other sorts of questions, and he found himself able to answer these as well.

In 1910 the New York Times published a two-page story with pictures about Edgar Cayce’s psychic ability as described by a young physician, Wesley Ketchum, to a clinical research society in Boston. From that time on people from all over the country with every conceivable question sought his help.

In addition to his unusual talents, Cayce was a deeply religious man who taught Sunday school all of his adult life and read the entire Bible once for every year that he lived. He always tried to attune himself to God’s will by studying the Scriptures and maintaining a rich prayer life, as well as by trying to be of service to those who came seeking help. He used his talents only for helpful purposes. Cayce’s simplicity and humility and his commitment to doing good in the world continue to attract people to the story of his life and work and to the far-reaching information he gave.

Charles Thomas Cayce, Ph.D.

President

Edgar Cayce Foundation

Editor’s Explanation of Cayce’s Discourses

Edgar Cayce dictated all of his discourses from a self-induced trance. A stenographer took his discourses down in shorthand and later typed them. Copies were sent to the person or persons who had requested the psychic reading, and one was put into the files of the organization, which built up around Cayce over the years, the Association for Research and Enlightenment (better known as the A.R.E.).

In his normal consciousness, Edgar Cayce spoke with a Southern accent but in the same manner as any other American. However, from the trance state, he spoke in the manner of the King James Bible, using “thees” and “thous.” In trance, his syntax was also unusual. He put phrases, clauses, and sentences together in a manner that slows down any reader and requires careful attention in order to be sure of his meaning. This caused his stenographer to adopt some unusual punctuation in order to put into sentence form some of the long, complex thoughts conveyed by Cayce while in trance. Also, many of his discourses are so jam-packed with information and insights that it requires that one slow down and read more carefully in order to fully understand what he is intending.

From his trance state, Cayce explained that he got his information from two sources: (1) the inquiring individual’s mind, mostly from his or her deeper, subconscious mind and (2) from the Universal Consciousness, the infinite mind within which the entire universe is conscious. He explained that every action and thought of every individual makes an impression upon the Universal Consciousness, an impression that can be psychically read. He correlated this with the Hindu concept of an Akashic Record, which is an ethereal, fourth-dimensional film upon which actions and thoughts are recorded and can be read at any time.

When giving one of his famous health readings, called physical readings, Cayce acted as if he were actually scanning the entire body of the person, from the inside out! He explained that the subconscious mind of everyone contains all of the data on the condition of the physical body it inhabits, and Cayce simply connected with the patient’s deeper mind. He could also give the cause of the condition, even if it was from early childhood or from many lifetimes ago in a previous incarnation of the soul. This was knowable because the soul remembers all of its experiences. He explained that deeper portions of the subconscious mind are the mind of the soul, and portions of the subconscious and the soul are in the body with the personality.

In life readings and topic readings, Cayce also connected with the subconscious minds of those inquiring as well as the Universal Consciousness.

Occasionally, Cayce would not have the material being requested, and he would say, “We do not have that here.” This implied that Cayce’s mind was more directed than one might think. He was not open to everything. From trance, he explained that the suggestion given at the beginning of one of his psychic readings so directed his deeper mind and focused it on the task or subject requested that he truly did not have other topics available. However, on a few occasions, he seemed able to shift topics in the middle of a reading.

The typed readings have a standard format. Numbers were used in the place of the name of the person or persons receiving the reading, and a dash system kept track of how many readings the person had received. For example, reading 137-5 was the fifth reading for Mr. [137]. At the top of the reading are the reading number, the date and location, and the names or numbers (for privacy) of those in attendance. Occasionally the stenographer would include a note about other conditions, such as the presence of a manuscript that the in-trance Cayce was supposed to view psychically and comment on. In many cases, I left in the entire format of a recorded reading, but sometimes only a paragraph or two were pertinent to our study, and then I only give the reading number.

As I explained, Cayce dictated all of these discourses while he was in trance. In most cases, he spoke in a monotone voice. However, he would sometimes elevate his volume when saying a word or phrase. In these instances, his stenographer usually typed these words with all-capital letters, to give the reader some sense of Cayce’s increased volume. These all-capital letters have been changed to italic typeface for readability, as well as emphasis. In many cases, these words appear to be rightly accentuated in Cayce’s discourses. However, in some cases, it is not clear why he raised his voice.

Another style that the stenographer adopted was to capitalize all of the letters in Cayce’s many affirmations (positive-thought or prayer-like passages to be used by the recipient as a tool for focusing and/or raising consciousness). I have also changed these to upper- and lower-case letters and italicized them. Questions asked Cayce have also been italicized for easier reference.

Whenever his stenographer was not sure if she had written down the correct word or thought that she might have missed or misunderstood a word, she inserted suggested words, comments, and explanations in [brackets]. If she knew of another reading that had similar material or that was being referred to during this reading, she would put the reading number in brackets. Cayce’s entire collection of readings is available on CD-ROM from the A.R.E., so, even though the referenced reading may not be in this book, I left these references in for any future research; but several of the readings that have references are in this book. Within the text of a reading, all (parentheses) are asides made by Cayce himself while in trance, not by his stenographer. She only used [brackets] within the text of a reading. In the preliminary material, she used parentheses in the normal manner. My comments are indicated by the term “Editor’s Note.”

A few common abbreviations use in these discourses were: “GD” for Gladys Davis, the primary stenographer; “GC” for Gertrude Cayce, Edgar’s wife and the predominant conductor of the readings; “EC” for Edgar Cayce; and “HLC” for Hugh Lynn Cayce, their son..

—John Van Auken, Editor

There Is No Death

Reading 5155-1

There is no death.

Reading 262-85

The soul cannot die; for it is of God. The body may be revivified, rejuvenated. And it is to that end it may, the body, transcend the earth and its influence.

Editor’s Note: Edgar Cayce actually gives examples of ancient people who lived as long as they wanted—“dying” only when they chose to leave this world:

Reading 3579-1

The entity then lived to be a thousand years old, in years as termed today, and saw great changes come about.

Reading 823-1

For some six thousand years—if counted as time now—the entity journeyed with those people for the Yucatan land, or the establishing of the temple there in which the entity aided. But with those inroads from the children of Om and the peoples from the Lemurian land, or Mu, the entity withdrew into itself; taking—as it were—its own flight into the lands of Jupiter.” This priestess lived six thousand years and died on her own terms, withdrawing from this world to sojourn in the non-physical dimensions of Jupiter.

Editor’s note: Much more on this in the chapter on life beyond death.

Reading 1158-9

There is no life without death, there is no renewal without the dying of the old. Dying is not blotting out, it is transition. For it has ever been and is, even in materiality, a reciprocal world. “If ye will be my people, I will be thy God.” If ye would know good, do good. If ye would have life, give life. If ye would know Jesus, the Christ, then be like Him; who died for a cause, without shame, without fault yet dying; and through that able to make what this season represents—resurrection!

Resurrection means what? It is reciprocal of that which has been expressed. How hath it been put again by him whom ye knew but disliked (for ye loved Peter the better)? “There is no life without death, there is no renewal without the dying of the old.” Dying is not blotting out, it is transition—and ye may know transition by that as comes into the experience by those very activities, that “With what measure ye mete it shall be measured to thee again.” That was His life, that is thy life, that is each one’s life. Then how near, how dear has grown in the hearts, in the minds of all, those who put away self that they may know Him the better?

He put away self, letting it be nailed to the Cross; that the new, the renewing, the fulfilling, the being the Law, becomes the Law!

For it is the Law to be the Law, and the Law is Love!

Reading 5155-1

There is no death. Death is only overcome by Him, who has overcome death. It is our promise, and when ye abide in Him sufficient to that, ye with Him, as the resurrection, may indeed overcome death in a material sense.

Reading 136-18

Death is as but the beginning of another form of phenomenized force in the earth’s plane, and may not be understood by the third dimension mind from third dimension analysis, but must be seen from that fourth-dimension force as may be experienced by an entity gaining the access to same, by development in the physical plane through the mental processes of an entity. The mind is being correlated with subconscious and spiritual forces that magnify same to the conscious force of an entity in such a manner as said entity gains the insight and concept of such phenomenized conditions, see?

We see in the physical world the condition in every form of life. As is taken here: We find in a grain of corn or wheat that germ that, set in motion through its natural process with Mother Earth and the elements about same, brings forth corn after its kind, see? the kind and the germ being of a spiritual nature, the husk or corn, and the nature or physical condition, being physical forces, see? Then, as the corn dies, the process is as the growth is seen in that as expressed to the entity, and the entity expressing same, see—that death, as commonly viewed, is not that of the passing away, or becoming a non-entity, but the phenomenized condition in a physical world that may be understood with such an illustration, viewed from the fourth-dimension viewpoint or standpoint, see?

Reading 140-10

The spiritual forces, in the spiritual consciousness, are cognizant of the condition in a physical plane until the spiritual has left that plane.

Reading 900-426

Life, in its continuity, is that experience of the soul or entity—including its soul, its spirit, its superconscious, its subconscious, its physical consciousness, or its material consciousness, in that as its development goes through the various experiences takes on more and more that ability of knowing itself to be itself, yet a portion of the great whole, or the one Creative Energy that is in and through all.

Reading 938-1

Life and its expressions are one. Each soul or entity will and does return, or cycle, as does nature in its manifestations about man; thus leaving, making or presenting—as it were—those infallible, indelible truths that it—Life—is continuous. And though there may be a few short years in this or that experience, they are one; the soul, the inner self being purified, being lifted up, that it may be one with that first cause, that first purpose for its coming into existence.

And though there may be those experiences here and there, each has its relationships with that which has gone before, that is to come. And there has been given to each soul that privilege, that choice, of being one with the Creative Forces. And the patterns that have been set as marks along man’s progress are plain. None mount higher than that which has been left in Him who made that intercession for man, that man through Him might have the advocate with the Father. And those truths, those tenets—yea, those promises—that have been set in Him, are true; and may be the experience of each and every soul, as each entity seeks, strives, tries, desires to become and pursues the way of becoming one with Him.

For the words that He has given are simple, “Inasmuch as ye do it unto the least, ye do it unto me.”

Then, as there has been and is the passage of a soul through time and space, through this and that experience, it has been and is for the purpose of giving more and more opportunities to express that which justifies man in his relationships one with another; in mercy, love, patience, long-suffering, brotherly love.

For these be the fruits of the spirit, and they that would be one with Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Reading 1353-1

As Life is continuous, then the soul finds itself both in eternity and in spirit; in mind, yet in materiality.

If these become confused by the desires of self-aggrandizement or self-indulgence, or the glory of self for fame, for fortune or any of those that are considered as ideal conditions in a material plane, then the entity becomes confused.

But as has been indicated, if there is the continuous use of spiritual force, spiritual value in relationships to the mental and material, there is harmony, peace, understanding and wisdom in the knowledge of the divinity within.

As to those influences then that arise in the emotional self from the material sojourns, or those appearances in the material plane, not all of these are given, but those that are influencing—or that have their bearing upon the activities of the entity in the immediate or in the present sojourn, and how they may be used as constructive forces.

For unless a knowledge of a condition or experience is to be used as a practical application in the present, it becomes null and void as to constructive forces.

Reading 1474-1

Life is continuous! There is no halting.

Reading 1554-2

Life is continuous, and is Infinite!

Then, the retardment or advancement of each soul—as this entity—depends upon how well it comprehends or applies its understanding.

But it is a cycle, and continuously is an entity meeting itself.

Reading 1567-2

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 contrarywise 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.

God’s Other Door

Reading 1472-2

Q: Does death instantly end all feeling in the physical body? If not, how long can it feel?

A: This would be such a problem; dependent upon the character of which unconsciousness is produced to the physical reaction—or the manner in which the consciousness has been trained.

Death—as commonly spoken of—is only passing through God’s other door. That there is continued consciousness is evidenced, ever, by the associations of influences, the abilities of entities to project or to make those impressions upon the consciousness of sensitives or the like.

As to how long—many an individual has remained in that called death for what ye call years without realizing it was dead!

The feelings, the desires for what ye call appetites are changed, or not aware at all. The ability to communicate is that which usually disturbs or worries others.

Then, as to say how long—that depends upon the entity.

For as has been given, the psychic forces of an entity are constantly active—whether the soul-entity is aware of same or not. Hence as has been the experience of many, these become as individual as individualities or personalities are themselves.

Q: If cremated, would the body feel it?

A: What body?

The physical body is not the consciousness. The consciousness of the physical body is a separate thing. There is the mental body, the physical body, the spiritual body.

As has so oft been given, what is the builder? mind! Can you burn or cremate a mind? Can you destroy the physical body? Yes, easily.

To be absent (what is absent?) from the body is to be present with the Lord, or the universal consciousness, or the ideal. Absent from what? What absent? Physical consciousness, yes.

As to how long it requires to lose physical consciousness depends upon how great are the appetites and desires of a physical body!

Reading 2174-2

In Him, the Christ, as manifested in Jesus, ye find this—the first, the greatest commandment—“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God (that as manifested in self as life itself), and thy neighbor as thyself.”

That which brings these both in awareness is that so well and yet so badly named love. God is love. An individual entity, each soul, each entity, each body, finds the need of expressing that called love in the material experience; from its first awareness until its last call through God’s other door—the need of love, expressed, manifested, by self and from others.

As ye sow, so shall ye reap—this again becomes the foundation of what self, as well as others, may expect. If ye would have friends, show thyself friendly; if ye would have love, love ye one another. These are unchangeable. They do not alter. Man alters them only in the application—as to whether it is to satisfy the ego or the animal, or the flesh, or the mind.

These expressions, then, to self, as is experienced in motherhood, give the greatest glory manifested in the earth.

Reading 2927-1

Q: What journeys should I take for pleasure, which would be most interesting to me in this life?

A: These should be chosen from the promptings of that as would be contributory to meeting some of the hobbies of the entity, and in its relationship to the general contribution of knowledge to the universal activity.

Let that mind be in thee which was in Him, who gave, “I and the Father, God, are one.” So become ye in thine own mind, as ye contribute, as ye attune thy inner self to those greater ideals; for it is not all of life just to live, nor yet all of death to die. For, they that put their whole trust in Him have passed from death unto life. And to such there is no death, only the entrance through God’s other door.

Reading 3954-1

Yea, pray oft for those who have passed on. This is part of thy consciousness. It is well. For, God is God of the living. Those who have passed through God’s other door are oft listening, listening for the voice of those they have loved in the earth. The nearest and dearest thing they have been conscious of in earthly consciousness. And the prayers of others that are still in the earth may ascend to the throne of God, and the angel of each entity stands before the throne to make intercession. Not as a physical throne, no; but that consciousness in which we may be so attuned that we become one with the whole in lending power and strength to each entity for whom ye speak and pray.

For, where two or three are gathered together in His name, He is in the midst of them. What meaneth this? If one be absent from the body, He is present with His Lord. What Lord? If you have been the ideal, that one to whom another would pay homage, you are then something of the channel, of the ideal. Then thy prayers direct such an one closer to that throne of love and mercy, that pool of light, yea that river of God.

Reading 5749-3

Q: Discuss the various phases of spiritual development before and after reincarnation in the earth.

A: This may be illustrated best in that which has been sought through example in the earth.

When there was in the beginning a man’s advent into the plane known as earth, and it became a living soul, amenable to the laws that govern the plane itself as presented, the Son of man entered earth as the first man. Hence the Son of man, the Son of God, the Son of the first Cause, making manifest in a material body.

This was not the first spiritual influence, spiritual body, spiritual manifestation in the earth, but the first man—flesh and blood; the first carnal house, the first amenable body to the laws of the plane in its position in the universe.

For, the earth is only an atom in the universe of worlds!

And man’s development began through the laws of the generations in the earth; thus the development, retardment, or the alterations in those positions in a material plane.

And with error entered that as called death, which is only a transition—or through God’s other door—into that realm where the entity has builded, in its manifestations as related to the knowledge and activity respecting the law of the universal influence.

Hence the development is through the planes of experience that an entity may become one with the first cause; even as the angels that wait before the Throne bring the access of the influence in the experience through the desires and activities of an entity, or being, in whatever state, place or plane of development the entity is passing.

For, in the comprehension of no time, no space, no beginning, no end, there may be the glimpse of what simple transition or birth into the material is; as passing through the other door into another consciousness.

Death in the material plane is passing through the outer door into a consciousness in the material activities that partakes of what the entity, or soul, has done with its spiritual truth in its manifestations in the other sphere.

Hence, as there came the development of that first entity of flesh and blood through the earth plane, he became indeed the Son—through the things which He experienced in the varied planes, as the development came to the oneness with the position in that which man terms the Triune.

Q: Describe some of the planes into which entities pass on experiencing the change called death.

A: Passing from the material consciousness to a spiritual or cosmic, or outer consciousness, oft does an entity or being not become conscious of that about it; much in the same manner as an entity born into the material plane only becomes conscious gradually of that designated as time and space for the material or third dimensional plane. In the passage the entity becomes conscious, or the recognition of being in a fourth or higher dimensional plane takes place, much in the same way as the consciousness is gained in the material.

For, as we have given, that we see manifested in the material plane is but a shadow of that in the spiritual plane.

In materiality we find some advance faster, some grow stronger, some become weaklings. Until there is redemption through the acceptance of the law (or love of God, as manifested through the Channel or the Way), there can be little or no development in a material or spiritual plane. But all must pass under the rod, even as He—who entered into materiality.

Reading 262-52

Q: Explain how so called good and evil forces are one.

A: This has just been explained. When there is delegated power to a body that has separated itself from the spirit (or coming from the unseen into the seen, or from the unconscious into the physical consciousness, or from God’s other door—or opening from the infinite to the finite), then the activity is life; with the will of the source of that which has come into being. As to what it does with or about its associations of itself to the source of its activity, as to how far it may go afield, depends upon how high it has attained in its ability to throw off both negative and positive forces.

Hence we say, “The higher he flies the harder the fall.” It’s true!

Then, that which has been separated into the influence to become a body, whether celestial, terrestrial, or plain clay manifested into activity as man, becomes good or bad. The results to the body so acting are dependent and independent [interdependent?] (inter-between, see) upon what he does with the knowledge of—or that source of—activity.

Reading 390-2

Q: Would it be better if I gave up all thoughts of marriage and children?

A: The opportunity will come; for, to build the home—those that make for the cherishing and directing of the lives of those that may be lent to a union of love in the body—is to be a handmaid to the Creator.

For, the home becomes—to such that conduct their lives in that direction—as an outer door to the heavenly home.

For, as man and woman pass through God’s other door from experience to experience, those that have been directed by thine hand will make for the blessings of the efforts put forth in the home.

Reading 1246-2

Q: Must I go on living?

A: Life is eternal. It is in Him, and merely to change through God’s other door has only changed the outlook. But as we prepare the self for the vistas of the various consciousness upon the stages of development, we become a part of that—if our pathway is being led aright.

Q: What should my next step be in order to be of service to one and meet my financial obligations?

A: These become rather conflicting in their import, but know—O child of light—the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof, “The silver and the gold are mine, saith the Lord.” He knoweth what thou hast need of. Be willing to put thy service to thy fellow man, thy service in a commercial world, into His hand. For God alone giveth the true increase. Fear not, if ye are in the Lord’s hands! Fear rather if ye have slipped from same.

Reading 262-57

Q: Does the truth, “By becoming aware in a material world was the only manner through which spiritual forces might become aware of their separation from spiritual surroundings” show that the reincarnation of those who die in childhood is necessary?

A: As the awareness comes by separation (which is being manifested in materiality as we know it in the present), there is the necessity of the sojourning in each experience for the developments of the influences necessary in each soul’s environ, each soul’s attributes, to become again aware of being in the presence of the Father. Hence the reincarnation into this or that influence, and those that are only aware of material or carnal influences for a moment may be as greatly impressed as were a finite mind for a moment in the presence of Infinity. How long was the experience of Saul in the way to Damascus? How long was the experience of Stephen as he saw the Master standing—not sitting, standing? How long was the experience of those that saw the vision that beckoned to them, or any such experience?

When one considers the birth of a soul into the earth, the more often is the body and the body-mind considered than the soul—that is full-grown in a breath. For, did the Father (or Infinity) bring the earth, the worlds into existence, how much greater is a day in the house of the Lord—or a moment in His presence—than a thousand years in carnal forces?

Hence a soul even for a flash, or for a breath, has perhaps experienced even as much as Saul in the way.

More to Living and Dying Than We Realize

Reading 1977-1

As has been given, it is not all of life to live, nor yet all of death to die. For life and death are one, and only those who will consider the experience as one may come to understand or comprehend what peace indeed means.

Reading 2399-1

It isn’t all of life to live, in one experience. For, life is continued; life itself is a consciousness, a gift of an infinite influence we may call God.

Thus does man comprehend that, it is in Him one lives and moves and has one’s being; and that we as individuals may be coworkers with Creative Forces or God, or we may become egotists and thus magnify self and self’s own abilities, self’s own purposes, to such measures as to become at variance to those creative forces. Thus we shut ourselves away from the real birthright of each soul—that is, to know its relationships to this creative force or energy, and the manners or means of manifesting same by and through its daily relationships with the fellowmen.

Reading 2147-1

There is no death when the entity or the real self is considered; only the change in the consciousness of being able to make application in the sphere of activity in which the entity finds self.

Reading 2397-1

It is not all of life to live, nor yet all of death to die. For, each experience is by and through the grace of Him, the Giver of all that is good, all that is perfect; that His will may be made manifest in the purposes, the hopes, the ideals of each entity. For, He hath not willed that any soul should perish, but hath with each temptation prepared a way, a manner through which each soul may become aware of its faults, its virtues; magnifying the virtues, minimizing the faults—that one may come to the perfect knowledge of one’s relationships to the creative influences—called God.

Reading 2842-2

If one will but take that ensample as was set in Him who made himself of no estate that He might gain the more. Using, then, this life as an ensample, one may apply—even as this entity may apply—these conditions in the earth’s experience and develop toward that mark of higher calling as is set in Him—for it is not all of life to live, nor all of death to die; for one is the beginning of the other, and in the midst of life one is in the midst of death—in death one begins in that birth into which the earthly application of the inmost intents and desires has been applied in respect to will’s forces, that given by the Creative Energy, that one might make self equal with that Energy.

Reading 2954-1

It is not all of life just to live, neither is it all of fame or fortune; for you have to live with yourself a long, long while.

Reading 2730-1

Keep the oneness of purpose; yet let these conditions ever be mindful to the entity: That it is not all of life to build material, nor all of death to die—in the high or low position, social, political or financial—but rather live the full life, ever being in that position of never asking anyone to do that which self would be ashamed for the mother to see self do.

Reading 3420-1

There is ever set before this entity daily (as each entity), good and evil, life and death. Life is growth. Death is as that separation or turning about, turning away from, or the opposite of growth.

Reading 1595-1

For as given of old, there is each day the opportunity. There is each day before thee life and death, good and evil.

Then know that there is oft a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is death; death meaning in this sense confusion, disturbance, unstableness, unhappiness, and those things that go to make up such influences in the experience.

Reading 1432-1

But know the truth of that which was taught by those priests whom ye heard of old, and those upon whom you made many stripes for the announcing of their faith (or had it done) that “The Lord thy God is one!” Know that their law is true. While life and death are the opposites, they are constant companions one with another. Only the destructive forces know death as lord. Only spiritual or creative forces know life as the Lord. Know ye the Lord!

Reading 254-17

For God is Spirit and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth, and as has been made manifest in the flesh with all power, all knowledge. As has been said, man must overcome through the knowledge and association of that knowledge with God’s word made manifest in the flesh. The last to be overcome is death, and the knowledge of life is the knowledge of death. See? Any who may seek knowledge is seeking the greatest gifts of the gods of the universe, and in using such knowledge to worship God renders a service to fellowman...

Reading 2282-1

Know that these are in keeping. Be thou faithful unto that time when ye may be called into the broader, the greater service. For there is not death, to those who love the Lord; only the entering into God’s other chamber...

Hence in material manifestation the entity finds an interest in things and conditions that may be spoken of as concerning psychic or spiritual things. Let the greater interpretation of the word psychic to the self, to the souls of men, be rather as the soul forces of men than their disincarnate beings! For, as ye live and move and have thy being in and through the grace of the Creator, so may it indeed be true that whether ye live or whether ye pass into the other chambers of God’s universe, ye are indeed His!

Keep ever before thee, then, the realization that “I am His; He is mine—if I keep His ways bright before my fellowmen.”

These are the promises, then, which He so easily and so well gave, “If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments, and I and the Father will come and abide with thee. Lo, I am with you always, even unto the ends of the world.”

It is not the end, then, because we pass from one room to another, from one consciousness to another. For, so is it proclaimed in that promise. Though we live in the physical consciousness, we pass—as this entity has oft—into those consciousnesses of Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Uranus; for these are but stepping stones to the greater consciousness which He would have each soul attain in its relationships with and usage of its fellowmen.

Reading 3357-1

We find that the astrological aspects mean little to the entity, yet they each have their place, which—as indicated—is relative. No urge exceeds the will of the individual entity, that gift from and of the Creative Forces that separates man, even the Son of man, from the rest of creation. Thus it is made to be ever as one with the Father, knowing itself to be itself and yet one with the Father, never losing its identity. For, to lose its identity is death indeed—death indeed—separation from the Creative Force. The soul may never be lost, for it returns to the One Force, but knows not itself to be itself any more.

Reading 2823-1

Each entity is a part of the universal whole. All knowledge, all understanding that has been a part of the entity’s consciousness, then, is a part of the entity’s experience.

Thus the unfoldment in the present is merely becoming aware of that experience through which the entity—either in body or in mind—has passed in a consciousness.

Hence there are two phases, or two means of expression from which urges arise in the experience of the entity. There is the form of consciousness attained when absent from the body, whether in normal sleep or in that sleep called death (in the earth plane). Then there is the consciousness to the soul-entity.

For, the entity finds itself body-physical, body-mind, body-soul. The body-soul is a citizen of that realm we call heaven, as much as the body-physical is a citizen of the land we call home.

These are the forms or the premises, then, through which influences arise.

Reading 900-370

... all life is one life, and the transition, the separation, the division, is as that given, so that even to man’s sensuous consciousness the change takes place; yet each possession possessing the power, even as in the drop of water separated, or as water congealed or expanded has its own peculiar power through the various stages of transition. Each force as manifested in the various stages, or states, being as that illustration of the various stages a life may manifest in its varied forms, either before combined in hydrogen and oxygen becoming water. Then in.a normal state representing a certain element separated by contact—cold or heat—changing form, and yet in each possessing a power, a force, all individual in itself, and only accessible when in that peculiar state.

Reading 136-18

We see in the physical world the condition in every form of life. As is taken here: We find a grain of corn or wheat that germ that, set in motion through its natural process with Mother Earth and the elements about same, brings forth corn after its kind, see? the kind and the germ being of a spiritual nature, the husk or corn, and the nature or physical condition, being physical forces, see? Then, as the corn dies, the process is as the growth is seen in that as expressed to the entity., and the entity expressing same, see—that death, as commonly viewed, is not that of the passing away, or becoming a non-entity, but the phenomenized condition in a physical world that may be understood with such an illustration, viewed from the fourth-dimension viewpoint or standpoint, see?

Reading 989-2

The earth’s sojourns also make for such close associations with why the entity from one realm of experience to another experiences the entering of those realms from the application of the entity, as we have indicated, in each earthly realm.

Then, a death in the flesh is a birth into the realm of another experience, to those who have lived in such a manner as not to be bound by earthly ties. This does not mean that it does not have its own experience about the earth, but that it has lived such a fullness of life that it must be about its business.

Reading 5005-1

Do spiritualize thy purposes, thy ideals. For it is not all of life to live nor yet all of separation of the body to die. For to be absent from the body is to be present with thy God. What is thy God? Place, position in the earth? These are naught when things of the earth may not be used. For man enters the earth with a body prepared by others before him. He leaves the earth with the body-soul he has prepared for that realm of the interbetween, and can only depend, then, upon self according to that done with Creative Forces or God’s laws. For they are perfect and are unchangeable.

Reading 5729-1

Astrological urges have become less and less a portion of the entity, for not merely material things but the controlling of material things has become the deeper urge for this entity. Hence the appearances in the earth and those that have a particular influence in the present are indicated, that the entity may take warning. Know that it isn’t all of life to live. Neither is it all of life merely to make a success socially or financially. It is not satisfying to the soul, any more than the taking of thought will gratify the appetites or longings of nature in the body itself. These must have their answer one in and with another.

Reading 254-92

For do not consider for a moment (for this might be carried on to an indefinite end) that an individual soul-entity passing from an earth plane as a Catholic, a Methodist, an Episcopalian, is something else because he is dead! He’s only a dead Episcopalian, Catholic or Methodist. And such personalities and their attempts are the same; only that ideal! For all are under the law of God equal, and how did He say even as respecting the home? “They are neither married nor given in marriage in the heavenly home but are one!”

Reading 1391-1

Yet if we learn more and more that separations are only walking through the rooms as it were of God’s house, we become in these separations, in these experiences—aware of what is meant by that which has been and is the law, as from the beginning; “Know O ye peoples, the Lord thy God is one!”

And ye must be one—one with another, one with Him—if ye would be, as indeed ye are, corpuscles in the life flow of thy Redeemer!

Reading 497-1

For, life is of the Creator—and it may only be changed, it cannot be ended or destroyed. It can only return from whence it came. As to how soon it prepares its soul, that is of the influences that may be carried to the Maker, depends upon what that soul in its environs, in its experiences, does concerning that it knows about that He, the Father, would have it do.

There is not more required than can be fulfilled in the experience of any soul. It is true that others, and individuals, may make for influences that may make for changes in the activities, but if the ideal and the soul’s longing is set in Him—only self may separate that soul from its Maker.

Reading 2911-1

Then, keep the mental attitude in that way of knowing in what there is life, light and immortality. It is not all of death to die, nor all of life to live. When there is sought that peace with Him, this may be had. For His promises are sure.

Reading 335-2

What are the ideals? What are the purposes and aims? What are the desired positions of the body, when analyzed by self? Just the accumulation of power, money, the position that comes with the accumulation of moneys? Never—or never altogether, in the basic thought of the individual—has this been true! Rather has it been builded that the necessity of having that power, or that which creates that power, is the basis of the ideals of the inner man!

It is well that the body take this into consideration, then, at this time when changes are probable, when conditions are such in the present associations that the activities, much that the body would have set, or the position the body would occupy (that is, by desire), may bring discontent, fear, an unsatisfactory feeling from within; for it is not yet all of life just to live, neither all of death to die!

Reading 2034-1

... there are the needs for the entity to analyze self, self’s purpose, self’s desire; realizing that it is not all of life to live, nor yet all of death to die, but that the expression of life is a creative thing, a creative influence or force in the experience, and that there must be an ideal; ideal spiritually, ideal mentally.

Thus there are the needs for the constructive thinking, rather than that as may be a hit or miss, or a haphazard study of conditions.

Reading 3343-1

In analyzing the urges, there is the great tendency for the entity to judge according to material standards, and to depend mentally upon physical manifestations. These are well, but—with such standards and with such a measuring stick—one may easily deceive self. For we are warned that there is a way that seemeth right to a man but the end thereof is death. Death is separation, lost opportunity—in some sphere of activity in which there is a consciousness, either spiritual or material. Mind is ever the builder, for it is the companion of soul and body, and is the way that is demonstrated and manifested in the earth in the Christ.

Reading 2630-1

Thus the outcome of any development, any retardment, is according to the use the entity makes of opportunities, and the ideal with which the entity entertains those opportunities.

It is not all of life, then, to live, nor all of death to die; but what the entity does with the opportunities as they present themselves.

Reading 136-70

Life is real, life is earnest! yet it is not all of life to live, nor all of death to die—for with the thoughts and the deeds done in the mind and the body, these are that builded by the entity, or body, and must be met, and an account given of those things rendered in the body and the mind. For the soul liveth, and is a portion of the Creative Energy, and it returns to the Whole, yet reserving in itself that oneness in the ability to know itself individual, yet a portion of the Whole. What manner of man would one be that would make of that Whole its own concept, other than one with the Whole?

Reading 2438-1

In analyzing self, learn that it is not all of life to merely live, or to supply the needs of the body—in materiality. For, life is a continuous thing, an expression of Divine; and the stamp of mind upon the self is the expression of love of that Divine for the companionship of the soul as an individual, as an entity.

Reading 1759-1

Each entrance of an entity into a material experience is that it may better fit itself, through the application of an ideal in its experience, for a sojourn with that which is Creative—that influence or force in which all move and have their consciousness, their being.

Then, unless the ideal as set as the standard of an entity in any given experience is of a creative force or nature, and takes hold upon that which is constructive and creative, what must the experience be when the soul has shed material consciousness, and as it stands before its own conscience, its God, bare!

There is in the material experience that which is ever as a manifestation of that excuse of old [Genesis?], “I was aware that I was naked and hence I covered myself with leaves.” What are Thy excuses? What are thy conditions in thy activity, wherewith ye may stand as one that has sown the seed of righteousness? What is thy ideal of righteousness? Know that these can only be answered within thine own self. For thy body-physical is indeed the temple, the tabernacle of the living God; and there He hath promised to meet thee. For as the Teacher of teachers gave, the kingdom of heaven is within thee! and as ye make within thine own consciousness, through thy dwelling upon the thoughts of Him who is the Way, who is the Truth, who is the Light. And as He was asked in days just passed, “Speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.” His answer came, “Who made me to be a judge between thee and thy brother?

Reading 2080-1

These then are chosen—these urges that are indicated good and bad—that there may be an analyzing of self; that the entity may realize that it is not all of life just to live, and to enjoy the good things of material experience.

For thou art indeed thy brother’s keeper. There are those opportunities ever being presented for the real abilities which are within the experience and the consciousness of the entity. In taking advantage of, or using, such opportunities in the proper direction, the entity may make his paths straight, and know the purposes for which each soul enters a material experience; that these are not just that ye may have to hold, other than as a keeper of opportunities in hope, in love, in faith, in patience, as unto thy Maker.

It is not sufficient, then, to merely live that ye may outwardly appear as a successful individual—not too bad nor too good but to be one who, irrespective of others, chooses the better place.

Reading 3436-2

This information should be, then, as a.helpful influence if the entity will but analyze self, self’s abilities and the desires and hopes for the entity. Do not, then, allow self to become so material-minded that the judgments are measured only by the material yardstick of material accomplishments. For what profiteth a man who does gain the whole world and loseth his own soul? Or what would ye gain in exchange for the awareness of thy soul, that ye may know life is indeed eternal; and it isn’t then all of life to live, nor all of death to die.

Reading 4400-1

There is also that necessity for the individual to so attune self from the spiritual effect that must be instilled in the individual to whom such applications may be made, as would come under the supervision of the individual; for it is not all of life to live, nor yet all of death to die—for in the midst of death one is in the midst of life, and it behooves one, then, that their own individual life be such that it—their life—is compatible to those tenets, those teachings, those principles, as would be set up by the application of self’s efforts toward the individuals whom one would attend.

Reading 5005-1

Do spiritualize thy purposes, thy ideals. For it is not all of life to live nor yet all of separation of the body to die. For to be absent from the body is to be present with thy God. What is thy God? Place, position in the earth? These are naught when things of the earth may not be used. For man enters the earth with a body prepared by others before him. He leaves the earth with the body-soul he has prepared for that realm of the inter-between, and can only depend, then, upon self according to that done with Creative Forces or God’s laws. For they are perfect and are unchangeable.

Reading 2573-1

While it is not all of life to live, each soul enters for a purpose. And it is not merely to gain fame or fortune, nor to be thought well of in the material plane only; but it is a real spiritual and mental experience also.

Reading 2142-1

One that may be trusted in its relationships with others, and to its own sorrow has often found another’s word is not as their bond; while for self that promised is to self as binding as were it a bond; though these must be often dissuaded in self. Well that self keep this same attitude; for as to those relationships, these make for that that will make life more worthwhile in business, social, political, economical, regions or sources of one’s experience; for it is not all of life to live, nor yet all of death to die; for, as is builded in the experience of self, whether in the marital, the social, the political, the religious or the business associations, each and every individual becomes a reflection of that that individual holds as its ideal—whether that ideal be position, fame, fortune, or the aggrandizing of selfish interests, or self’s own motives or bodily desires. These become paramount in the entity’s inner self, and when these are builded upon that that is not of the ideal, they must sooner or later be wrecked upon those of discouragement, disorder, discontent, disconcerted activity, those of strained relations with friends, associates, family, and the like—for those that breed contempt must have the same as its own bedfellows.

Reading 670-1

... those things in which the judgments or activities of the entity may engage—either in the mental, material or spiritual ever must be governed by those things of a spiritual source or nature. For, as will ever be seen in any influence, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. The environs and hereditary influences that may be said to be from the purely material sense would never answer in the activities for this entity, whether in relationship to material or spiritual things, as an answer for that to which it would bring itself in relationships with or without these conditions. For the basis in this entity’s experience must be that which is well-grounded in self from first taking counsel within self and knowing from what basis, from what standard the judgments of the activities are to be judged or governed; and these will make for the general assurance within the experiences that the outcome of whatever activity in which the entity may engage in the material sense will bring for the experience that which is worthwhile. For, it is not all of life alone to live nor all of death to die, to those that have visioned—and do vision—that purpose for which the experience of an entity is engaged in its passage through any particular experience in the earth.

Reading 4028-1

Q: Does the Doctor appreciate my putting flowers on his mothers grave?

A: This should not be as to whether the Doctor appreciates it or not. Let it be an answer to thee, to the mother. For if this is done in the right spirit, it will bring many more returns than if done purposely to please someone living. This is not the gaining of something from same, but the contributing to the memory, with the thought of love and compassion.

Reading 5122-1

Those activities of the entity should be in or around flowers. For this entity has so oft been the music and the flower lady, until it becomes second nature to work in or with those either in arranging bouquets or corsages, or even the very foolish way of sending to those who have passed on. They need the flowers when they are here, not when they are in God’s other room!

Reading 5155-1

Q: Will I overcome death in this incarnation?

A: There is no death. Death is only overcome by Him, who has overcome death. It is our promise, and when ye abide in Him sufficient to that, ye with Him, as the resurrection, may indeed overcome death in a material sense.

Reading 262-73

For He is the way; He is the life; He is the vine and ye are the branches. Bear ye fruit, then, worthy of that thou hast chosen; and He will keep that thou hast committed unto Him against every experience that may be required, that may be needed, that may come in thine attempts to show forth the Lord’s death till He come again; Death meaning that transition, that decision, that change in every experience. For if ye die not daily to the things of the world ye are none of His.

Reading 3188-1

For, no soul enters any experience perchance. For it comes with a purpose. And the entity as well as every entity should know: The divine, the First Cause, is mindful of the entity. This is evidenced by the very fact that the entity finds itself conscious of being itself and aware of good and evil, light and darkness, life and death. These are all one. One is as life and death. There is no death to the spiritual. Hence by his passing through same, proved, indicated, that He overcame death; that we through Him might have life and life more abundant. These should be not merely tenets or truths for the entity, but living things, living experiences...

And again He has said, as He showed the way, as He fulfilled in giving his life, “In the day ye eat thereof ye shall surely die.” Yet the tempter said, “Not surely die,” for it may be put off; and it was—six hundred years—and yet death came, and pangs of the loss of self. Yet in that day when the voice was raised on the Cross, he said, “Father, why—why the way of the Cross?” This is indeed the pattern that is interpreted in “I perceive that the heart of man is to do evil—the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak.”

Reading 262-13

The harvest indeed is ripe, the laborers are few! The Lords have called, do call, for laborers in His vineyard. Who will work today? He that has seen a vision of the love of Him that has been set as thine example, as thine ideal. These founded in those that are of man’s making must come to naught! With the cooperation of the Spirit of Truth it is made alive in Him, even as the overcoming of death itself through the applying of self to His will. Not my will but thine, 0 Lord, be done in me! As the meditations should be, in the preparation of faith in self, in God, in thy ideal: “Create in me a pure heart, 0 God! Open Thou mine heart to the faith Thou hast implanted in all that seek Thy Face! Help Thou mine unbelief in my God, in my neighbor, in myself!”

Reading 2927-1

Reading 1152-1

But when the Prince of Peace came—into the earth for the completing of His own development in the earth, He overcame the flesh and temptation. So He became the first of those that overcame death in the body, enabling Him to so illuminate, to so revivify that body as to take it up again, even when those fluids of the body had been drained away by the nail holes in His hand and by the spear piercing His side.

Yet this body, this entity, too, may do these things; through those promises that were so new yet so old, as given by Him. “Not of myself do I these things,” saith He, “but God, the Father that worketh in me; for I come from Him, I go to Him.”

He came, the Master, in flesh and blood, even as thou didst come in flesh and blood. Yet as He then proclaimed to thee, there is a cleansing of the body, of the flesh, of the blood, in such measures that it may become illumined with power from on high; that is within thine own body to will! “Thy will, O God; not mine, but Thine, be done in me, through me.”

This was the message as He gave when He; too, overcame; surrendering all power unto Power itself, surrendering all will unto the will of the Father; making of self then a channel through which others taking hope through the knowledge that He hath perfected Himself, may bring to thee that grace, that mercy, that is eternity with Him and in Him.

Reading 1158-5

Be patient—be patient, my child; for in patience know ye thine own soul and become aware that I am able to sustain thee, even though ye walk through the valleys and in the shadows of death.” For death hath no sting, it hath no power over those that know the Resurrection, even as thou hath seen and as thou hast known, as thou hast heard, how the Resurrection brought to the consciousness of man that power that God hath given to man, that may reconstruct, resuscitate, even every atom of a physically sick body, that may resurrect even every atom of a sin-sick soul, may resurrect the soul that it lives on and on in the glory of a resurrected, a regenerated Christ in the souls and hearts of men!

Reading 1158-9

Resurrection means what? It is reciprocal of that which has been expressed. How hath it been put again by him whom ye knew but disliked (for ye loved Peter the better)? “There is no life without death, there is no renewal without the dying of the old.” Dying is not blotting out, it is transition—and ye may know transition by that as comes into the experience by those very activities, that “With what message ye mete it shall be measured to thee again.” That was His life, that is thy life, that is each one’s life. Then how near, how dear has grown in the hearts, in the minds of all, those who put away self that they may know Him the better?

He put away self, letting it be nailed to the Cross; that the new, the renewing, the fulfilling, the being the Law, becomes the Law!

For it is the Law to be the Law, and the law is Love! Even as He showed in all of His manifestations, in the material experiences in the earth; that ye doubted, honestly—that is in the eyes, in the heart, in the soul even of the Creator counted—even as of old—desire, honest desire (not because faults did not arise in material world but they were meted to Abraham, even as He said)—as faith!

Faith is manifested by that evidence of things not seen, but the hope in the promises of that which is Creative in thine inner self, thine own soul, as it seeks expression, hopes for in the life, yea in the blood of the Lamb which is the Life that lights the whole world!

Disposition of the Material Body—

Reading 275-29

Q: How should a body be prepared for burial?

A: This depends upon the development or that builded in the consciousness of the individual, as to what is necessary for the loosening of the elementals from the physical body. As has been noted, this may best be studied by the manner in which the various religious forces or cults dispose of such bodies in India; for, as has been given, “Here we may know their belief, or what they think they believe, by the manner in which disposition is made of the body.”

That that would be ideal is that it may be hermetically sealed, or by fire, or by the separation of the atmosphere from the body.

Q: What is the best disposition of a body, for the sake of all?

A: By fire!

Reading 1472-2

Q: If cremated, would the body feel it?

A: What body?

The physical body is not the consciousness. The consciousness of the physical body is a separate thing. There is the mental body, the physical body, the spiritual body.

As has so oft been given, what is the builder? mind! Can you burn or cremate a mind? Can you destroy the physical body? Yes, easily. To be absent (what is absent?) from the body is to be present with the Lord, or the universal consciousness, or the ideal. Absent from what? What absent? Physical consciousness, yes.

As to how long it requires to lose physical consciousness depends upon how great are the appetites and desires of a physical body!

Reading 378-11

Q: Is a crematorium the best place to burn a dead body by fire?

A: That depends, to be sure, upon the feelings or activities of an individual towards such dispositions. As we would find, the safer and the better way would be in such a place.

The Borderland, Where the Dead Transition—

Reading 262-89

They that are on the borderland are only in that state of transition.

Reading 1404-1

There are many influences and many forces, but only one spirit of good. There are many entities in the inter-between, in the borderland, in the shadowland, in the developing along the way; but only one spirit of truth, which is life everlasting!

Reading 900-10

Q: What is meant by the Borderland as referred to in a reading?

A: That condition that the living experience with the soul, the mental faculties, the desire, the consciousness of the various phases of each laid aside and the soul, with its companion, the sub-conscious, peeps into the interlay between the spirit and soul, or superconscious, or that existence as lies in that space where the impressions of the disincarnate spirits, with their soul, communicate with such earthly conditions as illustrated in this:

When the physical body lies in slumber, we find the organs that are subjugated, the life-giving flow and the subconscious forces acting, and the soul forces ready for that communication with intermingling conditions lying between.

Again, as in the present sphere, in this body lying here [Edgar Cayce], we find all life in suspension, only portions of the higher vibrations in accord with those vibrations that communicate with the Universal forces.

Reading 3976-3

Have some terribly hard times in China today. In the Manchurian region, a flood and fire both. Many peoples are passing into the Borderland, their entities taking their position as has been manifest through their environment in the earth plane at present time. There are those conditions arising from this great boredom in the consciousness of many that will bring the revolution in the minds of many peoples, and begin that understanding of the purpose of the Gift of God to the World in the One made manifest in the flesh, and able to bring the consciousness made manifest in the world to the peoples. Hence many will be able through this to lay aside the physical and again manifest in a physical before men.

Reading 900-346

There are many various phases of the operations of those in the Borderland, and many types, many classes, many characters, that seek the expression of that development found in the various entities who may lay aside the physical for the operation of either that in the 4th dimensional nature or that in the purely ultraistic [altruistic?] nature as was manifested by that entity, who in the weeks ago passed into the spirit plane. In the study of such, be thou well balanced in that thou studyest [studiest], for know that those who seek more for the material manifestation seeketh rather for the sign, and as the Master gave, no sign shall be given to a wicked or adulterous generation.

Reading 900-8

Q: How may this body attune his mind with that of his father who has gone from this earth’s sphere?

A: Just as has been given. Study into the Borderland, as has been given; with the study, the thought, the lapsing of the self into these conditions, where the consciousness is laid aside and the superconsciousness rules, we may come into such communications, as this body has in sleep. Not well that this be dwelt upon at all times, for we bring to the other entity distresses at times.

Q: This body was told to write in the third dream. What should he write?

A: Those things he has been given the glimpse of in the Borderland, or of those conditions that come from information that comes from Borderland.

Q: What is the interpretation of this Borderland he saw in his dream?

A: The vision of the possibilities of gaining and understanding of conditions that do exist, may exist, and will exist in the sub-conscious, super-conscious or souls of individuals that live, have lived, may live in earth’s plane. This is, and should be considered, as the vision as of Daniel.

Q: Was this dream given to warn him of anything wrong he was doing?

A: There is warning in all of these. Hence the last, “Study or look into the Borderland.” Nothing wrong toward the entity’s personal actions, save as the warning of the usage of the person’s facilities and possibilities of developing for the Borderland.

Reading 900-328

Q: Morning of July 11th. Another of series on spirit communication, so called, that started with the experience of digging through the earth from the earth plane to cosmic, at tennis time. This heralded in this series of dreams, or predicted it. In this one I crossed the bridge of life that I have gone half way over before. As I landed on the other shore, the Voice spoke saying: “For the Association of National Investigators.” Upon landing upon that shore I was conscious of a great noise, of a speeding up or quickening of activity. I felt a certain freedom. I was afraid on this Borderland that some earthly or evil spirits might control. My father spoke saying: “No, you reach beyond them. You are free to choose here, and you are under control. You command the entities of this plane.” I felt a great power, and many about me. Much more that I will not describe here, came into my consciousness, but I felt a little of what my father had previously told me, as follows: “[900], you will never know your capacity to work for good while you are in the flesh, but when you come into the spirit then you will know.” The buzzing sound grew louder. What was this? And the speed increased in rapidity, and as my senses became bewildered, [136’s father] spoke to me saying: “[900], you know us,” and I felt that I did.

A: This, as we see, is as given, the greater understanding to the entity as respecting the Borderland and its association with those in the spirit plane, or in the activity of the cosmic forces.

As is indicated in the crossing over on the bridge of life, the entity—through set definite purposes—finds self into that plane wherein there becomes specific action in the full manifestations of the application of truths understood and truths disseminated, and as is given to the entity, through those that remain near and dear to the inmost being of the body, the entity finds that in this definite way, in this definite stand taken, there is that assurance that there enters not that which may take from that builded by the entity toward the better knowledge and understanding.

In the increase of the noise, is as the raising of that vibration that exists between that of the material and the spiritual, and—as given by the father—there cannot be the full consciousness of the one without the laying aside of the other, for no one serves two masters.

In the knowledge of the presence of others comes the greater understanding of the great leveler that comes with the more perfect understanding of the one in all, and with the continuing of the great noise, as is seen, there is the continual knowledge of the body, mentally, consciously, physically, being raised to that higher power, even as is set in Him who gave, “And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.”

Keep thine self physically, mentally, spiritually, in the way of understanding, and in this new way, this new manner, draw others into that light that brings the more perfect understanding of life lived worth while, and the satisfying of the knowledge of oneness with the Father.

Reading 900-331

We have the body, the enquiring mind, and the dreams. These we have had here before. The dreams, as we see, come through those channels as have been outlined to the entity, and again we find the entity approaches closer and closer to the threshold of the Borderland in consciousness and in understanding. Hence there is seen more and more of the reasoning from within toward the outward appearances of conditions, and the entity should in the quieter moments gain better understanding of the phases of life and of how the application of the lessons and truths gained apply in the lives of others. Not to condemn, not to bring railings on any, but that the love of the Father may be made manifest in the earth—for, as the entity goes in and out among men, and as truth, trust, love, and the kindred phases of life, enter into the secular things of life, this—as is seen and experienced by the entity—becomes the more worth while—and while the conditions of the secular things may pass and fade, these—love, charity, long suffering, and such kindred conditions—remain, and stand the test of so as by fire.

Prayer for Those Who Have Entered the Borderland—

Reading 281-15

Q: Please give a prayer for those who have passed on.

A: Father, in Thy love, Thy mercy, be Thou near those who are in—and have recently entered—the borderland. May I aid, when Thou seest that Thou canst use me.

The Dying and Dead Experience

Reading 5195-1

Yes, we have the body; and the soul would take leave of same. There are many experiences in a life’s journey in the earth that are much more serious than that man calls death, when the trust of the soul and heart of the man is in the Lord, who doeth all things well. There is little interpretation-physical of the disturbance, and it is gradually progressing in the inabilities of the entity to do for self, think for self. Even yet there is in the consciousness the desire that those, for whom the entity has been responsible for their being in the earth, should take note and prepare while they may to meet their God.

For the time cometh, as it must to this body, when no work is to be done but ye must stand before the judgment bar of thine own conscience, as must each soul, and determine as to whether in the light of the knowledge, in the light of thine opportunity, ye can as thy friend, thy God say, “I have dishonored no man, 1 have taken naught from my brother, but what 1 restore fourfold.”

And remember, as this entity goes to its long rest, there are those whom he has entrusted with an obligation. Do not disregard the counsel. For he has been and is viewing those past opportunities that soon shall come no more in this life. There are the warnings, heed them! For the Lord will not always smile on those who disregard the warnings which have been and are being now, here, made to those whom this body would have—heed the warning.

Reading 1408-2

Mrs. Cayce: You will have before you the circumstances and conditions surrounding the death of [1408], —, Penna., June 8, 1937; together with the various members of her family and the questions resulting from her sudden death; especially the questions of [her daughter], who requests a Reading on these conditions. You will give that which may be helpful to the family at this time and answer the questions which they have presented.

Mr. Cayce: Yes, we have those circumstances and conditions attending the separation of the body and soul of [1408].

In giving that as would be helpful and constructive in the experience of each member of this family:

As has been so aptly said, her life, her work, her love, is an example of Christian faith and fortitude.

Hence for those that wait:

It would be selfish to wish or desire conditions to be different. For in His Wisdom He hath seen fit to leave—in the love as was manifested in the life—an example for each; in patience, in courage, in forbearance; in keeping a watchful, careful attention on the lives of each of the family.

The body was so tired from the cares of the material world that the physical reactions were in the heart; that had been so ready to open itself to the needs of each, not only of the family but to all that know, that even were acquainted with the body.

Yet it grew so weary with these cares that He, in His love, saw fit to let the separation come; that the soul might in peace rest in the arms of Him who is her Savior—Jesus!

Hence you each should take the lesson of that courage, of that patience, of that forbearance, of that long-suffering, as a part of your own lives; and let it become—as she manifested—the experience of the everyday life, in the dealings and in the associations with the fellowman.

The physical condition that wrought the change was the engorgement of the arteries between the heart and the liver. The dregs of hardships, of trials, became heavy.

As to the message that she would leave, that she would give to each:

To [269]: Keep a watchful eye upon [son], and keep the children together in their varied experiences; for in the union of purpose is there strength for all.

To [1st daughter]: Keep the care that has been given thee, even as a good shepherdess watching over the flock, even as He has shown in His ways.

To [2nd daughter]: Care for the home. Let that be thy part, thy mission, now. When there are the changes that are natural to come, these then will be a share of another; but keep thou the home for Papa, for [son], for [Baby—4th daughter].

To [3rd daughter]: Let those things wherein oft reproved, oft directed, be kept in that loving faith that has been thy outlook upon life. For hold fast to the things that bespeak of the true spiritual life; for in these ye find peace and happiness and joy.

To [son]: Attend thy father’s needs. Be his right hand. If it is in keeping with thy inner self, prepare thy ways in the preparations in school for the activities of life itself. But look after him.

To the baby: Let [3 older sisters], keep watchful care with thee. Know, as is in the experience of those that have lived and know the pitfalls; know those things that make one weary, but hold fast to that which is good.

And may the blessings of the Father, through the love as shown in the Christ, guide each of you. Through the vicissitudes of life, through all the shadows, through all the disappointments, through all the sorrows, know He is near—and will hold thee by the hand.

Reading 4938-1

9/28/35 Miss [4938] fell out of her bedroom window at school and was killed.

Mrs. C: You will have before you the entity known as [4938], who was in one of the dormitories at Barnard College, New York City, in the early morning of Saturday, September 28th. You will tell us what you are privileged to tell, and that which will be helpful to those closely concerned. You will then answer the questions that may be asked by her aunt, present in this room.

Mr. C: Yes, we are with the entity here.

This, as may be and should be understood by those who are interested, was an accident—and not premeditated or purposed by the entity. The environs or surroundings that made for these happenings, in a material world, are with the entity in the present, making for better understandings. Those that are near and dear to the entity, to make for more understandings—condemn no one, nor the circumstance. Neither mourn for those that are at rest.

There is gradually coming the awakening. This, to be sure, is an experience through which the entity, [4938] is passing in the present. It is making for a helpfulness in its understanding and comprehending of that which is the experience, the awareness of same in the present.

The body-physical that was broken is now whole in Him.

Let thy prayer then be:

In Thy mercy, in Thy goodness, Father, keep her. Make for those understandings in my experience, in her experience, that we may draw nearer and nearer together in that oneness of purpose that His love is known more and more in the minds and the hearts of those that are in the positions of opportunities for being a channel, a messenger, in the name of the Christ. Amen.

Ready for questions.

Q: Is she happy, and does she understand where she is?

A: As given, there is the awakening, and there is the understanding coming more and more.

And soon to the Aunt may come the awareness of her presence near.

These are the conditions.

Q: Is there anything any of us can do to help her in any way?

A: Let the prayer as given be held occasionally, especially in the early mornings.

Reading 1270-1

Mr. C: Yes, we have those conditions that surround this body, [1270].

As we find, these might have been helped in the beginnings of these; but the advanced condition is such that not only is there the involving of same into the blood stream so that there is the hardening of tissue but there is the evolving of tissue into the fluid waters.

So, only to keep the body as easy as possible, and to maintain about this developing mind the beauty of transition, is the help as we find that may be given.

A great deal might be given from the attitudes or phases of karmic forces, but for the material physical—to only make to the understanding mind the beauties of transition in the spiritual evolution of the mental and soul forces offers for the body and those about same that help, that stamina, that makes for a greater comprehending of the purposes of a soul’s entrance into materiality, even though to suffer under those experiences and to bring—as it appears—little opportunity of material help.

Yet these experiences build into the warp and woof of each soul that which is a continued development for those that seek to know the ways of Divinity in its dealings with man. ‘

Hence let each study to show themselves approved unto the Creative Forces. While these appear from the material view as very little, the hope and the promise that have been given are sure—if we hold to those and claim them by our dealings with others as our very own.

Reading 5194-1

Yes, as we find, there is little materially that may be administered for any physical help in this present experience for this body.

There should be rather those administrations of the mental and spiritual help which may be given by those who are near and close to the entity who may apply such in their own lives to make easier that journey which this entity soon must take. For life is not spent just because changes come about, but the greater opportunity for this soul-entity is to be released from the suffering. For in the same manner as He, who is the way, suffered, so must each individual meet that in the flesh; that we may know that the Savior bears with each soul that which will enable life, consciousness, to be a continuous experience.

Thus it behooves those who seek help, even, to be patient, to be gentle, to be kind to others. For this entity needs not, save the assurance that those whom she holds near and dear will strive the harder to meet her again in that better understanding.

Reading 5344-1

EC: Yes, we have the body, [5344].

There has already been departure of the soul, which only waits by here. We have the physical being but the control of same only needs the care, the attention, the greater love which may be shown in and under the circumstances, which will give the best conditions for this body. For already there are those weakenings so of the centers of the cerebrospinal system that no physical help, as we find, may be administered, only the mental or soul help as will be a part of the mental or superconscious self.

This condition has come from pressures which caused dementia praecox.

Reading 1824-1

Too late in the application of those things for material benefits in this present experience. As is indicated, not only the toxic forces have been the more active but sepsis has already begun.

These then would rather be for those who are mindful of the associations and relations:

Know that life is a continuous experience, and as there is a consciousness in sleep that is not physical—in the sense of physical awareness—so there is a consciousness in the same manner when the physical is entirely laid aside.

He indeed is the resurrection and the life. In Him do we put our trust.

Then there should not be sorrow and sadness in those periods when the physical turmoils and strifes of the body are laid aside, for the moment, for the closer walk with Him.

For indeed to be absent from the material body is to be present with the Lord.

Let those admonitions and those promises, then, fill thy life and so determine within selves that ye will walk the closer with Him day by day.

And then when the shadows, as here, begin to close about, and there is the meeting at the river, there will be indeed no sorrow when this barque puts out to sea.

Reading 1567-2

Then we say, when our loved ones, our heart’s desires are taken from us, in what are we to believe?

Reading 3954-1

Then fret not thyself over others, but keep the faith. Walk in the Way. Keep the lights burning ever, and others will find the Way who in the present appear to be far in arrears with appreciations of the glory and love of the heavenly Father.

For, where two or three are gathered together in His name, He is in the midst of them. What meaneth this? If one be absent from the body, He is present with His Lord. What Lord? If you.have been the ideal, that one to whom another would pay homage, you are then something of the channel, of the ideal. Then thy prayers direct such an one closer to that throne of love and mercy, that pool of light, yea that river of God.

Aiding in the Presence of Death—

Reading 1175-1

Q: How may I develop a spiritual consciousness, so as to make emotionally mine the belief that the so-called dead are alive; that my loved ones are near, loving me and ready to help me?

A: As has been given, know thy Ideal, in what thou hast believed; and then act in that manner, ministering to others. For perfect love casteth out fear, and fear can only be from the material things that soon must fade away.

And thus hold to the higher thought of eternity. For life is a continual experience. And thy loved ones, yea those thou hast loved. For what draweth thee nigh to others, to do a kindly deed; to pass a kindly word to those that are disconsolate, those that are in sorrow? It makes for a bond of sympathy, a bond of love that surpasseth all joy of an earthly nature...

Q: What more may I do to aid my husband?

A: Soon the passing must be. Hold fast to the strength in self, making for the harmony or the comfort or the joys that come through those little associations that mean for strength to both.

Reading 1059-1

Q: How long will he linger?

A: This depends upon those conditions as just intimated; that as soon as there is the breaking up again of the cellular forces, then the separations will begin. This will depend upon the vitality of the body, and the ability of the heart’s action to work under the distresses and disorders that exist.

This may be eighteen to twenty-four days.

Q: Anything further for the body, or advice for his daughter—Mrs. [601]—who is with him?

A: There should not be the attempt upon the part of any in the material activities to make for distresses about the body. For these changes that come in the experience of the soul and spiritual activity of a body are the natural consequences. And these should be viewed from that ideal; that those forces which make for the greater construction should be kept in the spiritual manner for the body.

Reading 1786-2

Q: Have I any further contact with my late husband... since he has passed on?

A: If that is the desire, it will continue to hang on to same! If it is to be finished, and that which has been to be the development, then leave this aside.

Q: Does he know of my prayers?

A: Do you wish him to? Do you wish to call him back to those disturbing forces, or do you wish the self to be poured out for him that he may be happy? Which is it you desire—to satisfy self that you are communicating, or that you are holding him in such a way as to retard? or hast thou believed the promise? Leave him in the hands of Him who is the resurrection! Then prepare thyself for same.

Reading 1782-1

Q: Is it well to foster the sense of continued communication with his spirit while we are separated by “death,” so-called?

A: If this is for a helpful experience to each, it is well. Let it rather be directed by that communion with Him who has promised to be with thee always; and hinder not then thy companion, but—in such associations and meetings—give the direction to the Holy One.

Reading 480-47

Q: Can you tell me what is the best approach through this channel for me to gain an understanding from the spiritual angle of the apparent tragedy which has come in my life through the loss of my mother?

A: The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Such as these appear to come as trite sayings, but as we study the Scripture and the promises therein, we find that only does the answer come within the self. Know that as He wills, only that which is for the individual—for all concerned—the will of Him as it is done in each, able to make for that awakening necessary for the better understanding. Condemning of self, of others, of the lack of this or that or the other, only creates barriers that make for the inability of the self to catch the glimpse.

Read that which has been indicated in the last admonition of Moses, in the 30th of Deuteronomy. Read of those promises in the Psalms—as in the 24th, the 23rd, the 91st, the 1st, the 150th. All of these will indicate that which is the source of strength mentally and spiritually, and—if we coordinate our mental and physical selves—also the source of our body’s strength. For, as indicated in those, the source of all is there.

If we look, then, for other means—or material means—for the answer, there is none. Only is it found in Him.

Reading 2401-1

Q: How can I best adjust myself to the passing of my husband, and carry on as I should?

A: As has been indicated [regarding her being lonesome, home sick, so few friends]—in the manners as we have outlined.

Keep close to that assurance that he liveth!

Reading 5488-1

Q: Is there any message you could give regarding her husband, who has passed beyond, that would help her?

A: These, as we may find, may best be had through that introspection of self in those periods when one may turn to the within and seek that counsel, that at-oneness with those who are in the borderland; for all is well in the oneness of the purposes as may be accomplished in this material force through the mental changing, or guiding, that the spirit may work aright.

Reading 1318-1

Q: Through my visit and in the next few months can there be a general readjustment for Mrs. [268]?

A: Within the year, not a few months. Remember, as is the experience of the entity, as is the knowledge within—such changes are a growth; they are not a shedding, for they are a growth; and require the adjustments, vibratorially, in every form and every nature.

Reading 1004-2

Q: Any other advice?

A: Each that administers, each of those that are dependent, each of the loved ones materially should know, should feel, the Divine doeth all things well. Remember that thy Pattern through suffering became the Savior. Through suffering, individuals meet themselves, and fit themselves for the Divine expression in their soul selves. The bodies that cause disturbance by the disobeying of the laws and activities in a material world are but troublesome things to the soul at times. Life is continuous! The soul moves on, gaining by each experience that necessary for its comprehending of its kinship and relationship to Divine.

Reading 851-1

Q: Why was my son... taken so early in life?

A: Seek not to find that, that is best to be understood in Him!

Q: Did he leave a work unfinished that I could help to carry on? If not, who could carry it on?

A: Each have their individual portion in life. As each are in, or out, or pass through these activities, there are those that are brought in line to carry on in a way as is in keeping with those forces that direct, rule or govern, that as seen.

Reading 1073-4

Q: What was the purpose of my son [988] coming into my life and passing?

A: As has been given, that each might have the opportunity for the knowing the activity one of the other.

For, as has been given, He hath not willed that any soul should perish, but with each temptation hath prepared a means, a way of escape.

Through that the individual may do for those it contacts, the soul becomes aware of those experiences of beauty, of joy. For as He hath known thee, as thou hast known thy son in the flesh, each represents, each signifies an experience that—held in the light of that given—makes for a beauty, a joy.

Reading 1648-2

Q: What true relation does [my departed son] bear to me, and why did he come into my life? (My third, lived five days)

A: That there might be those assurances, in spirit, in mind, in truth, of the relationship self bears to the whole.

For as the soul sought expression through the unity of activity in the material experience, this was needed in the experience of each for that assurance of love that passeth understanding, and the peace that comes with the knowledge that His ways are not past finding out. Though to the material mind they may oft be misunderstood, the spiritual mind bears witness as one to another.

As to the previous associations, we find these were very close—As the brother and sister, in the Egyptian experience.

Reading 480-37

But know that these conditions [death of child], for all, are to be used in a manner in which there is no resentment, no animosity, no blame. Just know rather that it is; it cannot be changed—in the present—and that the soul has preferred to stay with its Maker.

Then, the anxiety would be rather in that more and more ye can be, ye are—if ye take the associations in such a manner—in a closer walk with Him, who is the Giver of all good and perfect gifts; who taketh life, who giveth life; that is, in taking life it is God—and that it is withheld, it is in those conditions in which all are so overcome with disappointment, discouragement.

Do not blame anyone. Do not hold any feeling against those who may have or may not have neglected, who may not have carried out that as might have been possible; but know, thy Redeemer liveth—and that flesh of thy flesh is one again with thy Maker!

Reading 3391-1

As we find, conditions are very serious. There should not be too great a stress put upon determining to hold this body in material manifestations. Not that the hope and trust in the divine is to be lessened. Rather should it be exercised the more in realizing, even with the material, what the handicaps would be. These should give rather the parents, those so close, the feeling of their interest, of their witness before the throne of grace and mercy.

There are physical disturbances that are a part of the entity’s karma. They are for lessons for those responsible for the body, if ye will accept it. If ye let it harden thee, ye miss the opportunity of knowing that He is the resurrection, He is the truth and life.

Put thy child rather at all times into the arms of Jesus.

In the physical we would apply those conditions that may aid. As developments progress, let that which is of the divine determine whether it is best in this consciousness or in the universal consciousness that it is to serve.

Reading 5678-1

In the attitudes as may be had by the body, these—as respecting mental and material conditions—are those things, those elements, that the body must face with that knowledge that there is an all-wise-providence, and that with the keeping in self of an ideal there is strength, comfort, understanding, that enables the body to meet the conditions which arise from day to day with the knowledge that He doeth all things well.

In that manner of mental outlook will the body find those abilities growing in self, for the steps are to be taken day by day, and sufficient unto today be that grace, that fortitude, that understanding, that will enable the mental forces to keep that balance that makes not afraid. Rather let those conditions come, then, as they may, knowing that He will give within self that knowledge of the Right to be done at the right time.

Reading 137-45

The time and the place is at hand when each may in their own way see the manifestations of the spiritual forces shown in the material world, and as each feel the weakness in their physical abilities to be of aid under the existent conditions, then doing that which seems to be as near as possible the correct condition in this time, put then the trust in Him who is the seat of Hope, Faith and of Life and of Death, and there will come through this that Peace and Joy that is beyond that that may be even conceived in the mind of him that knoweth not of that faith, for with this there will come the Peace, the Joy, and the knowing in self, “I have done my best,” see? for in Him is Life and Death, and this then must be left with Him, for with this entering in by these two there may come that Peace that passeth all understanding.

Reading 1073-3

Q: Any spiritual advice?

A: Not to self alone nor to self losses give way. Rather make of life and the love thou hast felt and shown, as an ensample—as an example to others; that they may know the love thou hast to give, that is broken—yes, yet it may be mended most in giving same to others.

If ye would have peace, make peace in the lives of others. If ye would have harmony, make harmony or harmonious experiences in the lives of others.

The Death Experience—

Reading 993-7

Q: Am I correct in feeling that we should develop to the point where we do not have to suffer illness before dying, but should be able to keep a healthy body and just pass out of it when we have finished our work here?

A: This is an ideal, an ideal. Those who apply may attain. Those who have the price to pay, those who must meet in their application of their tenets and truths in self, must still bear their cross. That each entity must and will some day attain to the ability to be conscious of physical death without the physical suffering is true, but the day—to most—is far, too far away.

Reading 262-8

Q: At the change called death is the entity free of a physical or material body?

A: Free of the material body but not free of matter; only changed in the form as to matter; and is just as acute to the realms of consciousness as in the physical or material or carnal body, or more so.

Reading 1472-2

Q: Does death instantly end all feeling in the physical body? If not, how long can it feel?

A: This would be such a problem, dependent upon the character of which unconsciousness is produced to the physical reaction—or the manner in which the consciousness has been trained.

As to how long—many an individual has remained in that called death for what ye call years without realizing it was dead! The feelings, the desires for what ye call appetites are changed, or not aware at all. The ability to communicate is that which usually disturbs or worries others.

Then, as to say how long—that depends upon the entity.

For, as has been given, the psychic forces of an entity are constantly active—whether the soul-entity is aware of same or not. Hence, as has been the experience of many, these become as individual as individualities or personalities are themselves.

Reading 3744-2

Q: Does the soul ever die?

A: May be banished from the Maker, not death...

Q: What is meant by banishment of a soul from its Maker?

A: Of the will as given in the beginning to choose for self as in the earthly plane, all insufficient matter is cast unto Saturn. To work out his own salvation as would be termed in the word, the entity or individual banishes itself, or its soul....

Q: To what place or state does the subconscious pass to receive this information it gives?

A: Just here in the same sphere as when the spirit or soul or spirit and soul are driven or removed from the body or persons.

Reading 262-85

Q: Is it possible for our bodies to be rejuvenated in this incarnation?

A: Possible. For, as the body is an atomic structure, the units of energy around which there are the movements of the atomic forces that—as given—are ever the sentiment or pattern of a universe, as these atoms, as these structural forces are made to conform or to rely upon or to be one with the spiritual import, the spiritual activity, they revivify, they make for constructive forces.

How is the way shown by the Master? What is the promise in Him? The last to be overcome is death. Death of what? The soul cannot die; for it is of God. The body may be revivified, rejuvenated. And it is to that end it may, the body, transcend the earth and its influence.

But not those standing here may reach it yet!

Reading 136-6

Q: Dreamed I died.

A: This is the manifestation of the birth of thought and mental development awakening in the individual, as mental forces and physical forces develop. This, then, is the awakening of the subconscious, as is manifested in death in physical forces; being the birth in the mental.

Reading 3744-2

Q: Is it possible for this body, Edgar Cayce, in this state, to communicate with anyone who has passed into the spirit world?

A: The spirit of all that have passed from the physical plane remain about the plane until their development carry them onward or are returned for their development here, when they are in the plane of communication or remain within this sphere, any may be communicated with. There are thousands about us here at present.

Reading 5260-1

“As the tree falls, so does it lie,” saith the Maker and Giver of life. So does the light, so does the nature of an individual. For the beginnings in the next experiences are ever tempered by how sincere the purpose was of the entity in the experience before.

Reading 3817-1

Now, this is very interesting, to know that the entity known as [3817] has just come to the realization of being in the Borderland. [Died some 8 to 10 years previous to this reading.]

Reading 516-4

Q: In regard to my first projection of myself into the astral plane, about two weeks ago: Some of the people were animated and some seemed like waxen images of themselves. What made the difference?

A: Some—those that appear as images—are the expressions or shells or the body of an individual that has been left when its soul self has projected on, and has not been as yet dissolved—as it were—to the realm of that activity. For what individuals are lives on and takes form in that termed by others as the astral body. The soul leaves same, and it appears as seen. Other individuals, as experienced, are in their animated form through their own sphere of experience at the present.

Q: Why did I see my father and his two brothers as young men, although I knew them when they were white-haired?

A: They are growing, as it were, upon the eternal plane. For, as may be experienced in every entity, a death is a birth. And those that are growing then appear in their growing state.

Reading 262-92

Q: What is meant by paradise as referred to by Jesus in speaking to the thief on the cross?

A: The interbetween; the awareness of being in that state of transition between the material and the spiritual phases of consciousness of the Soul. The awareness that there is the companionship of entities or souls, or separate forces in those stages of the development.

Reading 967-3

He recognized all those influences in the earth that brought evil, whether manifesting as a dis-ease of body or of mind, or in the form of disease, or in jealousy, hate, malice, backbiting or all those things that are the fruits of that spirit—as death. These take many forms.

Reading 281-16

Q: Where are the dead until Christ comes? Do they go direct to Him when they die?

A: As visioned by the beloved, there are those of the saints making intercession always before the throne for those that are passing in and out of the interbetween; even as He, the Christ, is ever in the consciousness of those that are redeemed in Him.

Reading 262-39

Q: What is meant by “The first shall be last and the last shall be first”?

A: As illustrated, when life ends it begins. The end is the beginning of the transposition, or the change. The first is last, the last is first. Transposition.

Reading 5748-6

Q: What is the significance of the empty Sarcophagi?

A: That there will be no more death. Don’t misunderstand or misinterpret! but the interpretation of death will be made plain.

Reading 5277-1

Q: Is it true that “Many now living will never die,” as predicted by some?

A: No one ever dies if they believe in God. Not that those who are living materially will not die, for those who live materially, who are in a changing world, must die, and that change, that transition must come to all.

Reading 281-33

Q: Explain the symbol of the death of the 2 witnesses.

A: As is the symbol of—Does the individual, unless—Let’s illustrate by what has been given: The Master gave, “Before the world was, I AM! Now if ye abide in men and I in the Father, then I will bring to thy remembrance all things—from the foundations of the world!”

Yet these are as dead, or the only consciousness that arises from same is that which is fanned into life or activity by the application of the laws concerning same. Hence they are as dead, yet become alive again by remembrance, by the application of thought. In what? The light of that which has been attained by the entity or soul that has applied the former lessons in its experience.

Reading 281-37

Q: Explain what is meant by the first and second resurrections.

A: The first is of those who have not tasted death in the sense of the dread of same. The second is of those who have gained the understanding that in Him there is no death.

Reading 295-8

Q: Did the entity repay any fraction of the debt owed the Master while He was in the earth?

A: That’s impossible! For, as the entity and each soul learns, condemning self is condemning the abilities of the Master. As the Master has given, God is God of the living—not of the dead! For, the dead are separated from the living. As in the earth, so in the spiritual. Dead, or death, is separation. Death in the spiritual, then, is separation from life. Life, then, is God. The Master, the Christ, manifested life in the earth, through not only the material manifestations that were given in the ministry but in laying aside the life. As He gave, “I give my life—I give it of myself, and I take it of myself.”

So, in any attempt to repay—there can be no repay! But when one lives the life that manifests the Christ life, love, joy, peace, harmony, grace, glory, the joy is in the life of the Master as He manifests—and manifested—life in the earth.

Reading 5277-1

Q: Am I right in believing the real crucifixion of Jesus consisted in the suffering He was called upon to endure in meeting the tests involved in the initiation tactics to which He was subjected before He began His ministry?

A: No. The real test was in the garden when in the realization that he had met every test and yet must know the pang of death.

Reading 3976-3

Edgar Cayce’s reading volunteered (without being requested) at end of a dream interpretation reading for Mr. [900].

Reading 5749-13

In man’s experience in the earth there come those periods of doubt and fear, and of the loss of hope. Then to all such there should be the reminding of that Easter Morn; and as to what it has meant and does mean in the hearts and minds of those who have and do put their trust in Jesus, the Christ.

There should be the reminding that—though He bowed under the burden of the Cross, though His blood was shed, though He entered into the tomb—through that power, that ability, that love as manifested in Himself among His fellowmen He broke the bonds of death; proclaiming in that act that there is no death when the individual, the soul, has and does put its trust in Him.

Thus in this hour of despair throughout the world, when those activities are such as to indicate hate, injustice, tyranny, desire to enslave or to impel others to submit to the dictates of this or that power—let all take heart and know that this, too, as the hour upon Calvary, must pass away; and that as upon the wings of the morning there comes that new hope, that new desire, to the hearts and minds of all who seek to know His face.

This must begin within thine own heart.

The Suicidal Urge

Reading 1175-1

Q: Why is suicide considered wrong? Have we the right to leave the body?

A: So long as there are those that depend upon the body! And how hath it been given? No man liveth to himself, no man dieth to himself. No man hath been so low that some soul hath not depended upon, relied upon same for strength.

Thus we find while there may be those experiences, these are rather of a selfish nature. But remember He gave, “Those that would offend one of these, my little ones, better that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the depths of the sea.”

Then, when thine whole body and the purposes of thine mind are to do evil, well that they be separated from the channel or the means of bringing offense.

Reading 2540-1

Q: Why is the thought always with me to kill myself?

A: Self-condemnation. For, not enough of that seeking to manifest God’s will has been manifested. When this thought occurs, let thy prayer be as indicated:

Lord, here am I—Thine! Use me in those ways and manners as Thou seest, that I may ever glorify Thee.

Reading 911-7

Q: How can I desire to live more than to die, especially during two weeks or more of every month?

A: It is known by the body that this condition has been allowed to gradually increase by not doing things the body should, and by doing many things the body should not.

Then, to meet these, the first consideration must be taken in hand! The spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. Crucify (if necessary) the flesh and the body, but save the soul; save the spiritual self! and this may be accomplished through desiring first to awaken that! Hold fast to that thou knowest in self is able to overcome these conditions! physically acting, physically doing those things that have been outlined that are conducive to inducing and producing the physical effects; and that which must be met mentally in torture of body, meet it with a smile! knowing that it can be—it must be—it will be overcome!

Q: When I desire death more than life, how can I use my will?

A: When desire for death and the desire for life is presented, what is it that makes the life go on? The will! The spiritual life, the essence of God itself! Would the body be so weak as to crucify that it worships, rather than that which is only tagged on—in desires?

Make thy life one with His love! When such desires, such thoughts, even, find lodgment, look about self and see the struggle so many souls are making to keep body and soul together. How hast thou in any manner ministered to making their burden lighter?

In lightening the burden of another thine own is lightened twofold. In lightening the burdens of another the whole of will’s power is strengthened many fold.

Q: How can I desire to be well, to accomplish and to fight in spite of such inner and outward conditions, difficulties—family opposition, frustrations, etc?

A: Only by the sheer will is there the desire to make beautiful the spirit of truth and life that gives animation to any desire of the body, the mind or the eye; and these conditions may only be met by that which has so oft been given: Not in self, but in the inner self—the God that speaks within, and in giving that; in thought, in act, in desire, for the welfare of others—not of self! Become selfless! and there will grow that which makes the body, the mind, strong—and able to meet every obstacle in the physical conditions, in the social surroundings, in the family circles, with a smile; knowing that “If my life is one with Him the rest matters not,” and mean it! and do it! and Be it!

Q: What is life for and what is expected of me?

A: Use that thou hast to the glorifying not of self but of the Spirit that gives Life itself, that ye may be a companion with that source of Life that impels every thought, every desire, when not of a selfish nature.

Using that thou has for the satisfying of self’s desires, self’s own troubles, self’s own conditions that arise, is being so self-centered as to destroy the good that may come to self.

Q: Please give me some universal truths that will best meet and help my consciousness and aid me in the material life.

A: Study in body, mind and soul to show thyself approved unto God, that gives eternal life; becoming less and less aware of the needs or desires that gratify the carnal forces in the body, and show that thou hast—by thine prayer, thine meditation—reached into the inner self sufficient to make self less and less needful of the material things; for what is life, that ye gain power, position, wealth, and satisfy the longings of the flesh? Are ye but to lose thine own soul by so doing? It is in thine keeping! He stands ready to help, if ye will but let Him help! but if self bars the door to thine consciousness, then indeed sad becomes the end!

Reading 1246-2

Q: Must I go on living?

Reading 4415-1

... first there should be the study of self to that point where self has laid out that which it may do and that it may not do for its own better development in mental or physical; for in the building there is seen that each has its bounds as to that it may attain, when the building is by self alone. Well that others, as well as self, be considered—for no man... lives to self, no man dieth to self; for in Him is life, and the life is eternal—for the life is the gift of the Creator and is in Him, and that as builded is the application of self toward those laws as govern self in relation to that life. The life is the whole. No portion is all life, nor all life anyone portion.

Study, then, to show self approved unto the Giver of life—being not ashamed, for God—Life—is not mocked, and that the life—the body manifesting the life—sows, so shall that life gather of that sown, whether it be wheat, or good deeds or bad. In Him is life. Remain in Him.

Reading 1219-1

Q: Where do I go from this planet?

A: Where thou art preparing, and what thou art building.

Reading 69-6

Q: What specific work did I come to this planet to do, and how much longer do I have to stay?

A: You have to stay so long as there are the needs for the unfoldment of those that have come to rely upon the entity! Where failure has come—not failure, but rather the neglect to hold to the opportunity presented at times. How long remain in this sphere? This alone may the inner consciousness dedicate, or indicate.

Reading 4185-3

Q: Shall I continue to live my life as heretofore, or what changes shall I make?

A: More and more grow in grace and in the knowledge of the life’s purport in this mundane sphere; for it is not all of life to live, nor yet all of death to die. Live each and every day as if the evening was to be spent with thy Creator, and in the morning of each day give thanks to the Creator for that thou may be able to give in service and self to others, that they may be blessed, even as the Creator would have them be—through thine effort. Not that self is preferred above or beyond—the other, for he that would be the greatest among men will be the servant of men. Learn what that means in the life, and the life will be worthwhile.

Reading 4432-1

Continue with these until they are able to reduce the amount of the narcotic or the hypnosis, or this may be changed to a capsule that would assist in relieving the pain or the depression, and which would be easier removed, though of necessity there will have to be those of common judgment used, else we will find self-destruction coming to the front in same.

Reading 5437-1

Q: Why has the patient a fear of the future? Why does he not want to live?

A: The natural tendency of the gnawing from within, and the natural pressure created in the upper portion of system from same, distorts the view of the body, as well as that of depressions from the associations about same, but with a physical outlook changed, the whole outlook of body—mentally and physically—will also be changed. Will these but be applied, we will see great changes in this body, mentally and physically, in three weeks. Not perfectly well, no—for then, as has been given, there should be a change in the physical outlook, or a change in the physical surroundings for a time.

Reading 3503-1

In giving that which as we find may be of help for this body, there must be taken into consideration the personality of the entity as well as those conditions physical, mental and material, that arise in the consciousness of the entity in the present.

There are certain ideals regarding social and moral relationships that are exercised in the mind of the entity. Ask the self: Are these changes wrought in the mind consistent with what the body has practiced in its own experience, and in the whole relationships that are a part of the present experience?

The entity should begin first with the spiritual self. What are the ideals in the spiritual self? What are the sources of thy hope for a continued consciousness after this material life? For as it may be considered, it isn’t all of life just to live, nor all of death just to die, but what is prompting the hope of the future life—spiritually, mentally, materially? Are you as an individual living such a life that would be consistent in producing that ideal in relationship to all concerned in problems that are a part of the experience in the present?

Then, when the life is made consistent with the ideals, we will find health, greater relationships, greater help of every character may be experienced in the body, in the mind of this entity.

Be consistent, then, with self. Be consistent with the ideals.

Then they may be so lived in the experience as to mentally and materially demand or seek such in the relationships with others.

Do this and we will find life becoming more worthwhile—for self, for those with whom the entity comes in contact daily.

By the very living—not by word but by, deed also—make life worth living for others.

Ready for questions.

Q: How best can I deal with an infidelity problem in my home?

A: As ye would that others should do to you, do ye even so to them. These are problems that may be met first in self and self’s ideal; then so lived that it demands the respect ye give thine own ideal.

Q: Is there danger of a suicide from this condition?

A: Always danger, but it’s a lack of judgment. Be consistent. We are through for the present.

Reading 369-3

In the urges as are seen from the experiences in the earth’s plane, we will find many of those conditions that often bother the entity in the present experience. Hence those injunctions that may be given here, and through the experience and urge that to develop the entity must hold ever first and foremost that of Oneness with the Creative Energy in life, in death, in the interbetween—for it is not all of life to live, nor all of death to die; for one is the birth of the other when viewed from the whole or center, and is but the experience of the entity in its transition from and to that universal center from which all radiation is given...

In the one before this we find in that land when the nomads entered into the land of Croesus and took those of that land as hostage for the tribes. The entity then the ruler’s daughter, and in that school or that place so raided by the peoples, and the entity then taken as the hostage for Uhjltd, [294], the leader in this raid, and held as same by this leader until taken from him by the next in charge [195] and there remained. In the experience of the entity then in the name Elia, that horror of being forced into any action, whether of mental, physical, political, or any condition of subject to another’s will. The entity lost through this experience, to the detriment of self, to the low dreg that of taking life in the way to satisfy self; not in defense of principle or of self, country or position; yet in the early portion of the life giving much to many in many ways.

Reading 5488-1

Q: What advice as to how to take up life again?

A: In the application of self to the vicissitudes of life—in the midst of life one is in the midst of death, for death is but the beginning of life, as life is but the beginning of an opportunity to manifest that as is innately built within the soul of an individual itself. To lose faith, hope, in self and in those forces which must keep for the whole of the operative forces in life, is to lose hold and to lose confidence in self and in self’s heritage, as is given; for all are brought with the price, and in the application of self in service to another will one find that the aptitudes of life are but the stepping-stones to the better understanding of the conditions as each and every individual meets to make for them that development necessary, that they may join with those in the expressions of the divine forces as are made applicable in the lives of each and every individual. Applying self, then, in some definite, some individual service not as a service that is to be seen of men, but with a service eye—single to that of manifesting that faith, that hope, that expression as was given in Him, in “As oft as ye do it unto the least of these, my little ones, ye do it unto me”; for in Him is the life, and the light, and without Him there is no life at all.

Reading 3538-1

These should be thy first approach. For, as He has given, be not anxious wherewithal ye shall be clothed nor wherewithal ye shall be fed. For, the Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. When ye apply the spiritual life in thy relationships to others, there will be the supply. For, does He not clothe all nature? Are not the silver and gold His? Then act in that manner!

Begin by reading Exodus 19:5, and know that it is meant for thee. Then read the whole of Deuteronomy 30, and know that the counsel is being given to thee, and that ye have to choose each day, now, and every other day. Don’t say within self that these are of no avail to thee, but use them.

For again and again He says, “Try me—see if I will not pour out to thee a blessing.”

Do that. Then as ye study, know that ye are to not only read but apply John 14, 15, 16, 17. These are not merely words, they are living truths. He came that ye might have life and have it more abundantly. He withholds no good thing from thee, if ye will only choose it, live it. Live it in thy speech to others.

Though the heavens fall, though the earth be broken up, His promises will remain—and He will not fail thee, if ye fail Him not.

Dimension of Spirit Life

Reading 816-10

Spirit is the natural, the normal condition of an entity. For hath it not been given, God is Spirit and seeketh such to worship Him, in spirit and in truth?

And then, as must be seen, must be felt, must be experienced sooner or later the awareness, the consciousness that, only spirit is everlasting, then the promptings, the balance must be spiritual in its essence in dealing with or judging the mental attitudes, the social relationships, the material experiences.

Reading 262-123

Q: Give a definition of Spirit which may be given in the lesson.

A: Spirit is the First Cause, the primary beginning, the motivative influence—as God is Spirit.

Reading 2533-1

There may be the greater expression materially of mental and spiritual aspects of each soul. While body is subject to all the influences of materiality, it may be controlled—the emotions thereof—by the mind. And the mind may be directed by spirit. Spirit is that portion of the First Cause which finds expression in all that is everlasting in the consciousness of mind or matter.

Reading 900-16

Q: Explain the various planes of eternity, in their order of development, or rather explain to us the steps through which the soul must pass to climb back into the arms of beloved God.

A: These, we see, must be manifest only as the finite mind in the flesh. As in the spirit forces, the development comes through the many changes, as made manifest in the evolution of man.

In the development in eternity’s realm, is that a finite force as made of creation may become one with the Creator, as a unit, atom, or vibration, becomes one with the universal forces. When separated, as each were in the beginning, with the many changes possible in the material forces, the development then comes, that each spirit entity, each earth entity, the counterpart of the spirit entity, may become one with the Creator, even as the ensample to man’s development through flesh, made perfect in every manner; though taking on flesh, yet without spot or blemish, never condemning, never finding fault, never bringing accusation against any, making the will one with the Father, as was in the beginning. For, without passing through each and every stage of development, there is not the correct vibration to become one with the Creator, beginning with the first vibration, as is of the spirit quickened with the flesh, and made manifest in material world (earth’s plane).

Then, in the many stages of development, throughout the universal, or in the great system of the universal forces, and each stage of development made manifest through flesh, which is the testing portion of the universal vibration. In this manner then, and for this reason, all made manifest in flesh, and development, through the eons of time, space, and called eternity.

Q: What is this spirit entity in the body, [900], and how may he develop it in the right direction?

A: This is only the portion that develops other than in the earth’s plane. Spirit entity. For soul’s development is in the earth’s plane. The spirit entity is in the spirit plane.

Q: Does the spirit entity have a separate consciousness apart from the physical, and is it as the consciousness of [900] when he dreams, or has visions, while asleep?

A: The spirit entity is a thing apart from any earthly connection in sleep, yet connected. For the earthly or material consciousness is ever tempered with material conditions; the superconsciousness with the consciousness between soul and spirit, and partakes of the spiritual forces principally. In consciousness we find only projections of subconscious and superconscious, which conditions project themselves in dreams, visions, unless entered into the superconscious forces. In the consciousness of earthly or material forces there enters all the attributes of the physical, fleshly body. In the subconscious there enters the attributes of soul forces, and of the conscious forces. In the superconscious there enters the subconscious forces, and spiritual discernment and development.

Reading 900-24

Q: Have the lower forms of creation, such as animals, any life in the spirit plane?

A: All have the spirit force.

Reading 4866-2

What it [the self] would work toward must have a great deal to do with what may be called an entirely successful operation, an entirely successful development for the body; for what the body sets as its ideal, whether that which is wholly of the material or that which is a well balanced spiritual, mental and material condition, will be those developments; for the activity—whether of wholly material conditions, mental conditions, or of spiritual conditions—is the spirit with which an entity, a body, goes about its activity. If the life is to become wholly mechanical, or wholly material minded, then only the material will be the natural result, and this will not bring contentment—nor will it satisfy. If the ideal will be set as a well-balanced self, knowing that the spirit, the life—that is, the spirit is the life, the mental attitude is the development or the builder—then the results will be in that comparison as to the activity that is given in respect to these attitudes.

Reading 4595-1

The sympathetic forces [are] the seat of all of the soul and spirit forces [in the physical body].

Editor’s Note: The sympathetic nervous system includes the seven endocrine glands, which other Cayce readings identify as the physical portions of the seven chakras.

Reading 3744-2

Q: Please give a definition of psychic phenomena.

A: Psychic means of the Spirit or Soul, for cooperation of the Phenomena, or manifestation of the workings of those forces within the individual, or through the individual, from whom such phenomena, or of such phases of the working of the spirit and soul, to bring the actions of these to the physical plane, Phenomena meaning only the act itself, brought to the attention, or manifested in such a way as to bring the attention of an individual to the work itself.

Psychic in the broader sense meaning spirit, soul, or the imagination of the mind, when attuned to the various phases of either of these two portions of the entity of an individual, or from the entity of others who are passed into the other planes than the physical or material; yet in the broader sense, the Phenomena of Psychic forces is as material as the forces that become visible to the material or physical plane.

Psychic forces cover many various conditions, depending upon the development of the individual, or how far distant the entity is from the plane of spirit and soul forces.

Psychic means not understood from the physical, or material, or conscious mind.

Psychic means that of the mind presenting the soul and the spirit entity as manifested in the individual mind. Then taking the phases of that force, we find all Psychic Phenomena or force, presented through one of the acknowledged five senses of the physical or material body—these being used as the mode of manifesting to individuals. Hence we would have in the truest sense, psychic, meaning the expression to the material world of the latent, or hidden sense of the soul and spirit forces, whether manifested from behind, or in and through the material plane.

Editor’s Note: Cayce saw a distinction between our soul and our spirit, as indicated in this next reading.

Reading 900-17

Q: It has been given that the soul is the spiritual force that animates or gives life to the body. What is spirit? What is spiritual force? Is it corporeal or incorporeal? Where may we find the soul force in the body—in the brain, nerve centers or where?

A: There is a vast deal of difference between spiritual and soul forces, for, as given, each force there has been set guards or bounds. Spirit forces are the animation of all life giving life-producing forces in animate or inanimate forces. Spiritual elements become corporeal when we speak of the spiritual body in a spiritual entity; then composed of spirit, soul and the superconsciousness.

In the soul forces, and its dwelling in man, we find the animation, the spiritual element, the soul that developing element, and contained in the brain, in the nerve, in the centers of the whole system. As to the specific centers, nearer those centers of the sensory system, physically speaking.

In the conditions, then, we find when soul and spirit take flight from the animate forces of an human, we find the deadening of all the centers of the sensory system, with the vitality of the solar plexus system, with the gland of the medulla oblongata, these then controlling the forces, and the life becomes extinct, with soul and spirit, with the super-conscious forces, gone.

Then, we have as this:

Spiritual element, the vitality, produces the motive forces of the entity, whether physical or spiritual. Spiritual forces being the life, the reproductive principle; the soul the development principle. As we have manifested, or illustrated, in the physical body in nerve tissue: There becomes that principle of the nerve action and the nerve in action. That is, with the expression of some condition bringing distress in the body, the active principle is the spirit. The nerve is the soul, for development.

Q: What happens to the conscious mind forces and physical forces at death?

A: The conscious mind forces either are in the soul’s development, and in the superconsciousness, or left with that portion of material forces which goes to the reclaiming, or remoulding, of physical bodies, for indwelling of spiritual entities.

Reading 257-238

Q: Did I conduct myself properly with the people I have met so far at the War Department?

A: We do not find fault, but this of course should be determined by self—rather than from other sources. Remember, these conditions exist, and keep this ever before thee: The real intent and purpose in declarations call from the spiritual forces that influence which is for good or bad. That, to be sure, is free will. Hence the injunctions as have been so oft given the body—do not appear to be that ye really are not. Be sincere with self and ye will not be false or insincere with others. The spirit of truth brings the outward appearance of that desire first suggested, if the body and mind are in keeping with that as would be pleasing to the influences or forces called God. For, the declaration of each soul sets in motion that spirit. What spirit do ye entertain? Truth, justice, mercy, love, patience, brotherly kindness? Or self, self-praise, self-glory that ye may be wellspoken of materially? These choices are made by the individual. Their results, their effects in the lives of individuals are such as to determine spiritual success, material success, or a well-rounded mental, spiritual and material success. For, the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof. The abilities that have been lent thee, keep inviolate—if ye would be in keeping with His purposes with thee.

Thou hast the ability to bring truth and light to many. These are then within thine own keeping, according to the manner in which ye conduct thyself before others. With what spirit, with what purpose do ye serve?

Reading 816-3

Much of that the entity has thought, has experienced, is cherished more from within. Yet, if there were some changes in these directions, there may be a greater joy in the living in this experience. For while that sojourn gives those influences which make for abilities in being able to cope with conditions and experiences in the lives of individuals and groups and masses, if these are held only in self and not given out with that love of service, for the abilities within self to give expressions of the love of a divine Father, they may become stumblingblocks in thine experience. For all force, all manifestations in materiality are the expressions of spirit, and are prompted by same. Are these influences of the divine, or dost thou cherish those that at times may become questioned? Know in what, in whom, thou hast believed, and know whether it be of a constructive or of a growing influence for the spirit of truth or not. For the promise is given to all, “My spirit beareth witness with thy spirit as to whether thou art choosing good or evil in all of thy ways.”

Reading 1257-1

Know that the living forces of thy God are active! Not as of stone or wood but as the spirit of truth that casteth out fear, that bringeth peace, that bringeth harmony, that bringeth those things that make for the associations with thy fellow man as a better neighbor, a better sister, a better daughter, a better mother, a better citizen.

Reading 1265-1