Edgar Cayce's "The Power of Your Mind"

[inavalan]

I am less interested in what Cayce said, but more in hints about what he did, how he did it, from his perspective.


Excerpts from Foreword:

... 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 ...

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. ...

Excerpts from the Editor's Explanation:

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 to what's being said. 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, and with asides, that the reader must slow down and read more carefully in order to fully follow the train of thought and shifts in topic.
 
    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, even if they occurred many millions of years ago.
 
    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 with 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. ...

[inavalan]

Contents
 
Foreword: Who Was Edgar Cayce? by Charles Thomas Cayce, Ph.D.
Editor's Explanation of Cayce's Discourses by John Van Auken

Chapter 1 - As a Mind Thinks, So It Is!
Chapter 2 - Thoughts Are Things!
Chapter 3 - Body-Mind Connection
Chapter 4 - Mind Is the Builder
Chapter 5 - Too Conscious of Self
Chapter 6 - Dreams and Visions
Chapter 7 - Destiny of the Mind
Chapter 8 - The Mind Is Symbolized in the Son

[inavalan]

It is interesting to compare concepts about the wider reality as worded by an eight-grade educated" Edgar Cayce, versus as they were worded by a more educated writer, Jane Roberts.

The comparison can be furthered with the work of the Italian scientists Luciano Pederzoli and Patrizio Tressoldi, https://www.evanlab.org/en/

The channel's educational background filters the channeled content to a large degree, but most of the basic concepts are well recognizable.

[Deb]

I read that book! Many, many years ago. So did Jane and Rob.

Seth does mention Cayce a few times.  https://nowdictation.com/q/cayce/

"Knowledge does not exist independently of the one who knows. Someone gave Cayce the material. It did not come out of thin air. It came from an excellent source, a pyramid gestalt personality, with definite characteristics, but the alien nature of the personality was too startling to Cayce, and he could not perceive it. (Pause.) I am giving you the material through a personality that you can understand; one that is mine, one of my favorite selves. (Smile.) In this way the point is made so that it is clear."
—TES8 Session 417 June 17, 1968

Judging by some of the stuff Cayce said (that doesn't sit right with me), distortion must have been a problem with him too.