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‘The decisive question for man is: Is he related to something infinite or not? That is the telling question of his life. Only if we know that the thing which truly matters is the infinite can we avoid fixing our interest upon futilities, and upon all kinds of goals which are not of real importance. Thus we demand that the world grant us recognition for qualities which we regard as personal possessions: our talent or our beauty. The more a man lays stress on false possessions, and the less sensitivity he has for what is essential, the less satisfying is his life. He feels limited because he has limited aims, and the result is envy and jealousy. If we understand and feel that here in this life we already have a link with the infinite, desires and attitudes change. In the final analysis, we count for something only because of the essential we embody, and if we do not embody that, life is wasted.
In our relationships to other men, too, the crucial question is whether an element of boundlessness is expressed in the relationship. The feeling for the infinite, however, can be attained only if we are bounded to the utmost. The greatest limitation for man is the "self"; it is manifested in the experience: “I am only that!” Only consciousness of our narrow confinement in the self forms the link to the limitlessness of the unconscious. In such awareness we experience ourselves concurrently as limited and eternal, as both the one and the other. In knowing ourselves to be unique in our personal combination – that is, ultimately limited – we possess also the capacity for becoming conscious of the infinite. But only then!’
Your mind creates your world, and by aligning your will with God’s, you can create a world of love and peace. This is our destiny.
Edgar Cayce, often referred to as ‘The Sleeping Prophet’, began his life in humble circumstances. The child of farmers, he never received more than an eighth-grade education, but that did not prevent him from becoming a voracious reader, finishing the Bible a dozen times by the age of twelve. It was during one of these readings that Cayce purportedly encountered an angelic woman who asked him what he wanted most. Cayce responded that his desire in life was to help the sick. With that, the figure disappeared without reply.
Cayce’s life would never be the same. Slowly, his psychic powers began to manifest. Most notably, whenever Cayce entered a hypnotic state, he seemingly had access to otherwise unknowable medical information. The sick would visit Cayce in droves, and, by one count, Cayce was able to diagnose their conditions with 85% accuracy. Fourteen thousand transcribed sessions exist today as testimony to these remarkable abilities. Because of this, he remains the most famous and well documented psychic of our time, and in a series of recently edited books, such as The Power of Your Mind, these insights into deeper reality are now widely available to all.
While most well-known for his prescient medical diagnoses, Cayce himself was equally concerned with his patients’ spiritual wellbeing. According to him, many physical ailments are the result of mental malfunctions, generated from childhood or even from previous lives. Via accessing the Universal Consciousness (or Akashic Records), Cayce was, in this hypnotic state, able to relay many vital lessons on the fundamental nature of the human mind and its relationship to what he cited as its First Source. By weaving these strands together, The Power of Your Mind composes a clearer picture of Cayce’s teachings on this topic.
To begin, the mind is a creative entity. While ultimately one being, the human person can be divided into three aspects: body, mind, and spirit. As the bridge between the other two, the mind encompasses both the physical and the spiritual. What the spirit imagines, the mind can usher into physical reality: ie insofar as our thoughts are ‘things’ they are responsible for creating what becomes real in our surrounding world. If we sow love and peace, we reap them in return. If we focus on spiritual things, we become more spiritual beings. Yet if we focus on fear and material pleasure, we separate ourselves off from our spiritual core—the place of contact with the divine. This can manifest in physical and mental illnesses, even in future incarnations.
The cure, however, is at your fingertips. Our will is what creates our world, yet we can learn to reorient our will and bring ourselves back into unity with Divine Will. This is our collective destiny. Only in humanity, is the privilege of free will given, yet it has cost us our unity with our Divine Source. Through our many incarnations, we will ultimately learn the lessons, however harsh they may be, and be brought back into God’s loving presence. When we seek first God’s Kingdom (which, as Christ taught, is found within us), all else in our lives will be taken care of. In other words, by finding God inside us, we create a better world outside us. By choosing to love God and neighbour, you experience that love in return. That is our divine destiny, and it is waiting for you to choose it. God stands with open arms to receive us back and give us our eternal reward. The only thing missing is our will to grasp it.
Cayce’s fame as a clairvoyant was unmatched in his day, attracting clients as renowned as Woodrow Wilson, Thomas Edison, and Marilyn Monroe. Since his passing, the organisation he founded, the Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) continues his legacy by promoting his work in at least 37 nations. Yet due to the sheer volume of transcribed texts stemming from his sessions, penetrating the density and range of his thoughts can be a monumental task. Moreover, while in his hypnotic state, Cayce was known for his often obscure, nearly incomprehensible speaking style that regularly employed archaic terms and winding phrases. Even his professional stenographer occasionally struggled to precisely transcribe his language.
Thankfully, many of these difficulties are alleviated by the present work. By piecing together various, interrelated threads, The Power of Your Mind allows a clearer image to emerge. The reader is not only given a peek into these renowned sessions but offered enough context to easily walk away with the core lessons Cayce intended to impart. Thus, for the curious, this text provides an accessible path into the wealth of teachings stemming from America’s most famous prophet.
Copyright © 2009 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation.
