A.R.E. Meeting for 12/27/10

Leader: Greg (for Sylvia)
Reader: Bob

We started the chapter titled "This Day Choose Thou." We read to the bottom of page 39, where we will start the section "Life Is Determined Through the Elements of Choice."

The experiment is taken from a paragraph on page 39: "Then choose ye this day whom ye will serve. It is not all that the Ideal should be our choice, as it is living and putting into practice the attributes of the Ideal. If the Ideal is love, then love should be manifested in our activities. If the Ideal is patience, then we should choose to be patient with others and in doing so, others may see the Ideal in us." This paragraph, combined with the previous page that states "Do not just sit still and wait!" and "Activity is found only in a purposeful life, either for good or for evil," means that we should actively try to apply the attributes of our ideal during this coming week.

A.R.E. Meeting for 12/20/10

Leader: Sylvia
Reader: Eric

We finished the chapter "Man's Relationship to Man." Next week we will start the chapter titled "This Day Choose Thou."

The experiment is taken from the last paragraph of the chapter we finished.

Children of the promise must always look for the God-like qualities of Christ in their fellow man. As we learn to do this, more and more the flaws in our brother will fade away, and we will behold only that which is Good.

Look for the good in others.

A.R.E. Meeting for 12/13/10

Leader: Sylvia
Reader: Greg

We are in the chapter "Man's Relationship to Man." We are at the last section titled "The Growth of Man's Relationship to Man," on page 30, about midway down, starting with "Then, we find, peace in the world..."

For the experiment, we read (on page 29) that we should love our enemies. This week, as part of the process of knowing thyself, attempt to find good in yourself, so that you can better see the good in others.

A.R.E. Meeting for 12/06/10

Leader: Sylvia
Reader: Greg

We began the chapter "Man's Relationship to Man." We are at the last section: "The Growth of Man's Relationship to Man."

For the experiment, we need to start looking within, and for this week, learn to forgive yourself.

A.R.E. Meeting for 11/29/10

Leader: Cindi
Reader: Nancy

We finished the chapter on "God-Love-Man." Next week we will start the chapter "Man's Relationship to Man."

For the experiment, we will take one of the fruits of the spirit mentioned on page 20 (love, patience, mercy, long-suffering, kindness, and gentleness) and apply it during the week.

A.R.E. Meeting for 11/22/10

Leader: Cindi
Reader: Greg

We are still in the chapter on "God-Love-Man." We are up to the section titled "The New Age."

With this being the week of Thanksgiving, the experiment is to look for things in which to be thankful. John is choosing to do a different one based on the words in the middle of page 17, "Had I always sought the kingdom first? Had I let God come first?"

A.R.E. Meeting for 11/15/10

Leader: Cindi
Reader: Sylvia

We started the chapter on "God-Love-Man." We are up to the section titled "Love."

The experiment this week is to find an opportunity to perform a random act of kindness.

A.R.E. Meeting for 11/08/10

Leader: Cindi
Reader: John

We finished the chapter on "Righteousness Versus Sin," so next week we will start on the chapter "God-Love-Man."

This coming week, let us take a sentence from the chapter and reflect on it. "Let us ask ourselves, are we manifesting thought, word and action and that which we sincerely believe?" (Found on page 5.) Do you have an ideal by which to compare against your actions? If so, then examine what you do this week to that ideal. If not, then look at what you do during the week that may be part of an underlying ideal that you are not aware of.

A.R.E. Meeting for 11/01/10

Leader: Cindi
Reader: Eric

We're in the first chapter ("Righteousness Versus Sin") in Book III and in the section "Our Purpose in Life." We are at the start of the second paragraph that begins "How great is the sin of those..."
Let us make the experiment this week a combination of inputs. We will take the affirmation read by Eric, add an ideals component from Cindi, and the ways of Christ mentioned by Nancy. So let the experiment read:

This week take one of the ways of the spirit of Christ (selflessness, love, mercy, forgiveness, patience, or long suffering), or an ideal you have chosen, and be a living example of that ideal by manifesting it among our fellow man.

A.R.E. Meeting for 10/25/10

Leader: Bob
Reader: Nancy

We started on Book III, in the first chapter "Righteousness Versus Sin," in the section "There is a Way," and are about halfway through where we will start with the sentence "It is true that we of ourselves can do very little."

The experiment this week is:

We read that Jesus never condemned of anyone's attempt to express their concept of God, and we want to spend a week where we attempt to not condemn others.

Cayce Links

I found an Edgar Cayce Readings and Remedies forum, though it does not appear to be very active.

The Edgar Cayce Health and Wellness site lists treatments for various medical conditions.

Exercises from "Edgar Cayce and the Sleeping Prophet"

In Chapter 8 ("Twenty Years Later") of Jess Stern's book, there is a discussion with Harold Reilly about some of the remedies he would try of people referred by Cayce, and he also demonstrated some of the exercises. Here is the part dealing with exercise:

Reilly stressed exercise, having maintained gymnasiums for forty-five years, and Cayce’s simple therapeutic exercises caught his interest. He noted that the mystic, while seldom exercising himself, recommended sitting-up exercises from a vertical position in the morning, floor exercises later in the day.

“In this way,” Reilly explained, “Cayce changed the flow of the lymphatic and blood circulation, getting the person who had been lying down all night on his feet to start the day.”

He also got him breathing deeply, preferably before an open window to eliminate stale lung air and oxygenate the body, giving it a full head of steam to open the day.

“Cayce,” Reilly pointed out, “specifically mentioned a Yoga breathing exercise, the alternate breathing.”

Mouth closed, the individual started off by breathing in through the left nostril, the thumb closing off the right, to the count of four, retaining the breath to eight, then exhaling through the right nostril to a similar eight count, closing off the opposite nostril. The breath was then taken in through right nostril, and the exercise repeated three or four times.

Demonstrating the Cayce floor exercises, the supple septuagenarian promptly got down on all fours and started moving his muscular body forward like a big cat.

“This is the cat crawl,” he announced. “You take five strides forward, five back, stretching every muscle in the body and bringing the vital hinge and rotary joints into play.”

As he finished his crawl, Reilly sat up with a smile. His face was red from the reversal of normal posture, but his blue eyes sparkled.

“Getting back to nature drains the sinuses. It wasn’t so many millions of years ago that man got around that way normally.”

Next was the Cayce roll-over. Sitting on the floor, knees hunched up, Reilly began to rock sidewise, from one half-reclining elbow to another.

“This stretches the side muscles along the ribs, flexes the hip joints, trims the thighs.” He shook his head. “Amazing that a man who didn’t know about exercise, consciously, should have hit on this simple yet effective movement.”

Reilly then slipped into a Cayce old-timer, the buttocks walk. Sitting up, legs stretched out, arms toward the ceiling, the septuagenarian started to move forward by first lifting one buttock and then the other.

“Many a woman’s hips I’ve slimmed with that one,” he said, negotiating the width of the room on the seat of his pants.

“I call it the beam-shrinker.”

From pushup position, Reilly then repeated the torso twist that Hovhaness had earlier demonstrated, his hips forming a circle, in first one direction and then the other. The bear walk, similar in posture to the cat crawl, was next. Reilly, again on all fours, walked flatfooted, his knees stiff, hips high in the air, heels and palms of hands flat on the floor.

And how was this different from the cat crawl?

“A stiffer walk,” Reilly explained. “It stretches the leg tendons, the hamstring muscle, and the area of the sciatic nerve, while also developing the arms and shoulders.”

Still demonstrating, Reilly slid into the morning exercise routine. After taking a few deep breaths, and practicing the alternate breathing, he began swinging one arm forward five or six times like a sidewheel on a Mississippi riverboat, and then reversed, repeating with the other arm.

“The individual,” he stressed, “is better stimulated, vertically, after a night of horizontal inactivity.”

After the arm swing, Reilly rotated first the left and then the right foot from the hip, in a brief circular motion, repeating five or six times in each direction. He then did a standup stretch, up on toes, arms high over head, meanwhile tightening the buttocks and then bending the hands to the floor, keeping the knees stiff.

“That’s the exercise,” he said, “that helped Hovhaness with his hemorrhoids, that and the torso twist.”

The demonstration continued. Arms again stretched overhead, Reilly lowered his head slowly to his chest, and then slowly pulled it back over his shoulders. It was the beginning of the head-and-neck exercise. Still stretching up on his toes, he circled the head slowly three or four times in each direction, and then, relaxing, started to rub his head. I suddenly noticed a new fuzzy growth of silver gray on the front of his scalp, where there had been no hair before. He noted my surprise.

“I don’t know what’s doing it,” he smiled, “but I’ve been growing hair on the bald spots for the last few weeks. It’s either the Cayce head-and-neck exercise, which I’ve been doing recently, or the castor oil I’ve been rubbing on my scalp. Nothing else has certainly changed after seventy.”

A.R.E. Meeting for 10/18/10

Leader: Bob
Reader: Greg

We finished the chapter on "Meditation." We didn't really decide what we were going to do next week. Will we start on "Cooperation," or will we start Volume 3?

The experiment this week is:

For your daily meditation period choose a specific aid for attunement or approach to preparation. Let it be something that you have not used in a regular fashion before (e.g., a specific chant, incense, exercise, music, method of cleansing, or abstinence from a particular activity). Complete this activity each day as part of your meditation period and keep a record of your experiences in using it.

A.R.E. Meeting for 10/11/10

Leader: Bob
Reader: Sylvia

We continued in the chapter on "Meditation," and made it up to "VI. CONCLUSION."

The experiment this week is:

Choose and write down one attitude, habit, or physical condition which could be eliminated by conscious effort and which you feel may be a hindrance in your spiritual search. Then decide on a constructive attitude or way of behaving that could replace that hindering one (and write down the replacement). Work each day on manifesting that replacement attitude or behavior. Record situations in which you are successful in manifesting this replacement attitude or behavior.

A.R.E. Meeting for 10/04/10

Leader: Bob
Reader: Cindi

We continued in the chapter on "Meditation," and made it up to "IV. THE FORCES."

The experiment this week is:

Use the prayer of protection given in the readings at the beginning of each meditation period. Make a special point of experiencing the inner meaning of the prayer as you use it and not just saying it by rote.

A.R.E. Meeting for 09/27/10

Leader: John
Reader: Greg

We started the chapter on "Meditation," and made it up to "B. The Mental Body."

No experiment was assigned, but if you want to do one, how about:

At the beginning of each meditation period take a few moments to become aware that there is a consciousness within each cell of your body. Suggest to or ask your body to join the mind and spirit in this period of seeking.

A.R.E. Meeting for 09/20/10

Leader: John
Reader: Greg

We read the chapter on "Spirit" from the "Experiments in a Search for God" book. Next week we will start the chapter on "Meditation" in the regular SFG book.

The experiment this week is:

As an activity separate from your meditation period, each day have a period of prayer (thanksgiving, confessional, petitionary, or whatever form you find meaningful that day).

A.R.E. Meeting for 09/13/10

Leader: John
Reader: Nancy

We completed the chapter on "Spirit." Next week we will start the chapter on "Meditation."

The experiment this week is:

Observe how you think and speak about this country and its leaders. Take responsibility yourself for living more fully some of the ideals upon which the nation was founded.

Edgar Cayce Exercise Video

This Edgar Cayce exercise video featuring JoAnn Brickley contains the same routines as a CD sold with Peter Van Daam titled "Western Yoga For All."
Video

Edgar Cayce Exercises

Someone who goes by the name of grammawdoeshisduty has been posting many short YouTube videos that demonstrate Edgar Cayce exercises. This person also has a Website at http://www.choosing-natural-health.com where Cayce products and cures are posted. Here are the exercises I have found so far.

Swing Arms

SittingSitups

BendAndSwing

Rotate Legs

NeckRolls

The Bear Walk

The Cat Walk

Torso Circles Hemmorrhoids Cure

The "Reach and Stretch" Hemorrhoids Cure

How to Start a Spiritual Growth Group

This video is an instructional guide to ARE Spiritual Growth Groups, designed for both newcomers and longtime participants. Narrated by John Van Auken, this video offers first-hand instruction from experienced participants as well as popular ARE spokespersons, such as Kevin Todeschi, Mark Thurston, Wendell Beane, Jim Dixon and others. Covering all aspects of Spiritual Growth Groups — the history, the various ways you can participate with a group, and the dynamics of growing spiritually with a group — this presentation will help you find what you need to get started on the next stage of your spiritual journey.

Visualization

On March 3, 2010, I sent John Van Auken the following question:

I hope you can help me understand this reading I came across. It has me a little puzzled and disturbed, but maybe I just don't understand it fully.

Reading 705-2 1/27/35

(Q)[683]: To bring a desired THING or CONDITION into manifestation, is it advisable to visualize it by making a PICTURE or just to hold the idea in prayer and let God produce it in His own way without our making a pattern?

(A) The pattern is given thee in the mount. The MOUNT is within thine inner self. To visualize by picturing is to BECOME idol worshipers. Is this pleasing, with thy conception of thy God that has given, "Have no other gods before me"? The God in self, the God of the universe, then, meets thee in thine inner self. Be patient, and leave it with Him. He knoweth that thou has need of before ye ask. Visualizing is telling Him how it must look when you have received it. Is that thy conception of the All-Wise, All-Merciful Creator? Then, let rather thy service ever be, "Not my will, O God, but Thine be done in me, through me." For all is His. Then, think like it - and, most of all, act like it is.

I don't understand the reference to the "mount." More than that, is this saying I should not visualize an outcome? If I have a relative with cancer, should I not pray and visualize that person being cancer-free? Could it be that I should just not visualize a material outcome in others because it may be going against their will? Can I visualize my sore knee becoming well? It seems a lot of healing involves a belief of becoming well and some of that could be through visualization. I've read many of your articles on meditation. I often visualize a flow of energy moving through my chakras.

An answer to my question was published in the Fall 2010 Venture Inward Newsletter, by John:

As the disciple Paul wrote, "We see though a glass darkly" (I Corinthians 13:12), not clearly, as we often assume. And though our intentions may be the best and we only seek to visualize the best, we don't always have the "big picture" of an incarnate soul--its karma, its tests, or God's plan for the soul. "God the Father has not willed that any soul should perish but has with every temptation prepared a way of escape." (949-11) Therefore, it is best that we raise our hearts and minds up to God and then in love and patient prayer allow God's Spirit to flow through us. As Cayce pointed out, souls often learn more and grow wiser and stronger when they are challenged, even Jesus: "Though he was the Son, learned He obedience by the things which He suffered." (900-232) The "mount" is physically a reference to our crown chakra, the mount of our body temple, where God has promised to meet us. Mentally it is a reference to a state of consciousness in which we enter the Holy of Holies in our consciousness and meet God as face-to-face, as Moses did. (262-37)
The meditative technique of using the "imaginative forces" is different from visualizing an outcome.

A.R.E. Meeting for 08/30/10

Leader: Martinaya
Reader: Cindi

We started the chapter on "Spirit," and are in the section "God's Projection." We should start with the fifth paragraph that begins "In the early days spiritual beings..."

The experiment this week is:

Remember each day that growth toward God can happen in whatever state or mood you find yourself. When you feel down, revise your expectations for yourself. Keep your efforts pointed in the direction of your idea, but take smaller steps.

A.R.E. Meeting for 08/23/10

Leader: Martinaya
Reader: Eric

We finished the chapter on "Happiness." Next week we will start the chapter on "Spirit"

The experiment this week is:

Observe the moments in which you let the turmoils and uneasiness of these times get to you. It may be the hectic pace or the continual state of things changing. Whenever you begin to feel troubled or tense that certain things may be blocked which you feel you need to get done, then use the affirmation: "If God needs me to get this thing done, He will provide the means." Let the affirmation lift you to a new attitude of faith, trust, and happiness about your life.

A.R.E. Meeting for 08/16/10

Leader: Martinaya
Reader: Sylvia

We started the chapter on "Happiness," and read two sections. Next week we will start the section "When Are We Happy?"

The experiment this week is:

Bring God into the happy moments of your life. During the day, when you have periods of feeling happy, remember the role that God is always playing in your life. With this recognition and remembrance, or with the words of a short prayer, be thankful.

How to Make a Castor Oil Pack

A.R.E. Meeting for 08/09/10

Leader: Martinaya
Reader: Greg

We finished the chapter on "Wisdom," and next week we will start the chapter on "Happiness."

The experiment this week is:

At least for one day go through the whole day without speaking unkindly of anyone. When you feel tempted to speak unkindly about a shortcoming of someone, remember that it is not up to you to make that person face up to himself. You may be right--that fault may be there. Instead, remember your sincere desire to see that person be whole and healed. Act or speak out of wisdom in such a way that it helps bring to the surface that person's wholeness.

A.R.E. Meeting for 08/02/10

Leader: Martinaya
Reader: Nancy

We started the chapter on "Wisdom," and read two sections. Next week we will start the section "Let Us Examine Ourselves."

The experiment this week is:

With your thoughts bring God and your spiritual ideal into one area which you may have thought was too trivial or too human for His concern. One way to do this is simply to have short periods of prayer while you are involved in that activity.

The Edgar Cayce Approach to Depression

This video segment is excerpted from a lecture given by David McMillin at the Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE) in Virginia Beach, Virginia on July 16, 2001. It explores the Edgar Cayce approach to depression, which Cayce described as pathology within the nervous system. However, Cayce went well beyone the biological dimension of depression to also include the mental and spiritual factores involved in this common malady.

What is Truth?

From the A.R.E. Blog
http://www.edgarcayce.org/are/blog.aspx?id=3557&blogid=445
July 16, 2010

What Is Truth?
By Edgar Cayce
First printed in December, 1929.

We often hear it said that Truth is evasive, Truth is naked, Truth will not be downed--but what is Truth? When we speak of A truth, or THE truth, or TRUTH, we possibly mean different things. You will remember, those of you who have read the little story--and I'm sure most of you have--there were three men who went to see an elephant, but all of them were blind. One of these stumbled against the side of the elephant, and he said, "I perceive, without a doubt, the elephant is very like a wall." Another one, as he stumbled about the animal, found his trunk, and said, "I perceive with a certainty, the elephant is very like a tree." The other man, as he stumbled about, got hold of the tail, and said, "I perceive the elephant is very much like a rope." Now were they in error? Did they have the truth? Or did they have only a portion of the truth? Or did they have any of the truth?

When we read, or get the idea of some particular thought, or some particular rule, gradually we build into our own selves the idea that we have gotten the whole thing. Now IS Truth such a thing that those who have been followers of Mohammed have all of the truth? Have they who have been the followers of Moses the law-giver, all the truth? Or has it rather been a growth in our individual lives, and what may be truth to one individual possibly may not, in the experience of the other individual, answer at all? Does that make the other any less true to the other individual?

Will it be possible for us to find something of which we can say, "THIS is truth," and KNOW that it will answer in everything or every way that life may present itself to us? I believe that we can. You may differ with me. I don't think, however, that you will be able to REFUTE what will be my definition, or what I will be able to say IS Truth. But many of you will say, "Well, have you been given some peculiar power that you have knowledge of what Truth is, and can answer the question that has been sought throughout all the ages, so that we may know what TRUTH is?" Let's see if this will not answer the whole question in our lives.

First we must know that, if we are to accept any word, or any follower as a truth, or THE truth, or Truth, we must be sure of the AUTHORITY that we quote. We must recognize these facts in our lives: there is a physical body, there is a spiritual body. We know the physical body is dependent upon its physical attributes for its development. It is also the temple, or the dwelling place of the spiritual body. The spiritual body, we know, is of the Creator--whatever we may call the Creator. It comes from the same thing--even if we go back to the scientific reasoning and say it begins from the lowest form of life. WHEREVER we begin, we have to say there is something beyond that where it has developed, whether you believe in evolution, creative evolution, or what not, it all has to come back to the very same thing, AND if I can answer this I don't believe I'm wrong in saying that you can take it from any standpoint you want to take it, but this IS Truth:

THAT WHICH KEPT BEFORE YOUR MENTAL MIND, YOUR SPIRITUAL MIND, WILL CONTINUE TO DEVELOP YOU UPWARD! That which, held before you, will continue to develop you upward.

Now, what have we taken for granted? We have taken for granted that man has a mind, that man has a body--a physical body, a spiritual body. He has a SOUL, if you choose! We have taken for granted that his mental body is controlled by his mental being. His soul, or his spiritual body is controlled by his subconscious, or his spiritual mind. That which will continue to hold before the individual that which he worships as his God will continue, then, to develop the individual towards that which he worships.

Truth is not a thing, then, that we can see, that your eyes or body, or ears, or things of that kind--but it is the essence with which an individual builds faith, hope, and trust. That is Truth! That essence that we are enabled to hold before our mental vision, is truth. Will it build your body? It will! Will it heal the sick? It will!

A few days ago I was talking to some people--they were telling me about a book that had been written by some of the masters from the far East. I had never seen the book before, but when I opened it to read it I knew what was in it before I read it. I don't know how, nor why, but I knew the experiences that I was going to encounter. I don't know why except THIS: I have been continuing to think of how I might answer this question. With the first four or five pages I found that in this book, this ONE thing was continually held before the individual; that which you hold before yourself, to create that image you worship, that will develop you always upward, and will continue to enable you to know truth!

Truth, then, being a growing thing, truth being a thing that will develop you, is a something that is ENTIRELY IN ACTION! Not inactive, but IN ACTION! That's what God is! For in every MOVEMENT that has ever been, it has been a continual upward development, or upward toward that which IS Truth.

If you hold malice, you can become one of the meanest persons in the world. You know that if you continue to send out thought (that may become a miracle or a crime); you create just those very same cross-currents in your mind.

What is prayer but simply attuning yourself to that which you are seeking assistance through? That's all prayer is - attuning yourself to that very same thing. That becomes Truth when it becomes in action. When it goes into action, to YOU it becomes Truth. It's your own conception of what your God is. If it makes you better to the very thing you worship, or more in accord with the thing you worship, THAT you become, whether it's downward or upward, you go whichever way your standard is set.

Q. Yet if we are going backward, how can we know?

A. You can't make it anything else, because to you it's truth, because that's what you are following. That becomes truth to you. That which you continue to follow becomes truth whether it's negative or positive. As we learn it from that viewpoint, it becomes true; that is, whatever we hold that continues to build upward is Truth. Now, as to who is to say whether you are building up, or as to how near it brings you to that thing you worship AS your God, because God IS Truth, if you continue to hold that, you may develop to that, but to someone else whose God might be something else, that wouldn't be Truth.

Q. That applies right here in your hospital, etc.

A. If it answers one, it answers all. That's what it stands for; that which may develop in the individual that understanding of its relation to its Maker and to its fellow man. Or, as we come back to the very same thing I said in Sunday School this morning, I've been studying a long while, trying to understand what is meant by the second commandment, and I never did know what it meant - that is, satisfactorily to my own mind - until the other night. The first commandment, as we know, is, "Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and thy mind, etc." The second is, "Thou shall not make unto thee any graven image." Why? Because if you make an image it becomes your God. But if you have for your God that which is within your own individual self, you yourself being a portion of the Creator, you will continue to build upward, to it!

Note: This article includes excerpts of a lecture given by Edgar Cayce at the Cayce Hospital in Virginia Beach and is included in the report document for reading 1800-15. It was first published by The Association of National Investigators in Volume 1 of The New To-Morrow in December, 1929.

A.R.E. Meeting for 07/26/10

Leader: Greg
Reader: Eric

We completed the chapter on "Knowledge." Next week we will start the chapter on "Wisdom."

The experiment for everyone (except maybe Eric) this week is:

Consider the relationships in your life about which you have the most knowledge. These are probably ones of trust in which the individuals have been able to share with you deep and important things about themselves. It is likely that they are also the relationships in which you can most easily hurt the other person. For a week make a special effort to be kind--in word and action--to one of these people.

A.R.E. Meeting for 07/19/10

Leader: Greg
Reader: Greg

We read two more sections in the chapter on "Knowledge," and next week will start on the section "The Application of Knowledge."

The experiment this week is:

Make it a discipline to take some time each day to really listen to what is concerning one or two people. You do not have the answer to their questionings. Just express your love through your attention as they open up and share.

A.R.E. Meeting for 07/12/10

Leader: Greg
Reader: Greg (you knew it was coming)

We are still in the chapter on "Knowledge," at the same section ("Knowledge is Power") as the week before. A concensus wanted to read the "Experiments" book, and we caught up to where we left off last week in the "Search for God" book.

The experiment this week is:

Each day try to find a tempo of acting, thinking and feeling which puts you in touch with the tempo your soul wants to get done what it needs. Use that resultant extra energy which becomes available in a creative way.

Van Auken's book: From Karma to Grace

John Van Auken talks about his latest book: From Karma to Grace: The Power of the Fruits of the Spirit



Here are some notes from the video:

John defines Karma as: A universal law of cause and effect, that as one expresses and uses their free will to do things (not only externally but in their own minds and hearts, as one thinks and feels), it creates an action to that. It's that flow back to you. This force reacts to your use of free will, in thought, in feeling, in action, in words. What you dish out comes back to you.

Another aspect of Karma is that it creates patterns and habits and these become hard to change. As a soul acts or thinks in a certain way, it creates these habit patterns.

John describes two aspects to Grace that overcome Karma:
(1) The love of our creator for us. The Force that brought us here did so with a motivation of love. Therefore it cares for us when we try to apply ourselves, and is called "the Grace of God."
(2) That which comes from practicing the Fruits of the Spirit. Karma is suspended when you attempt to learn by using these fruits.

John said the Fruits of the Spirit are mentioned throughout the Bible and Paul writes directly to them. Inside the fruit is the Seed of the Spirit. As you assimilate the fruit into your thoughts, feelings, actions, and words, you give life to the Spirit and it grows within you. John mentions some of these fruits as: Love, Patience, Faithfulness, Humility, and Meekness.

John also discusses "Gifts of the Spirit." The Fruits of the Spirit generate the awakening of the Spirit within you. When awakened, you receive the benefit of the Gifts of the Spirit. They are listed as Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, Better Council (responses don't come from the ego, but from the essence of the Spirit), and Fear of the Lord. You come to know the Fear of the Lord when you know the power of the forces of the cosmos and nature, and quit struggling against it. You seek to know this force and come into harmony with it.

A.R.E. Meeting for 07/05/10

Leader: Greg
Reader: Nancy

We started the chapter on "Knowledge." Next week we will start the third section titled "Knowledge is Power."

The experiment this week is:

Try spending the first five minutes or your daily meditation period in prayer for others. Use it to orient your mind so that your following period of silence will be more in keeping with an ideal of love and service.

Pressure Cooking

I was interested in what the Cayce readings had to say about food preparation using a pressure cooker. There were some references to pressure cooking, and from what I see, these cookers appear to be beneficial.

Here are two references to steam pressure cooking and one reference to steam cooking.

13. (Q) Does steam pressure cooking at 15 lb. temperature destroy food value in foods?
(A) No. Depends upon the preparation of same, the age, and how long gathered. All of these have their factors in the food values. As it is so well advertised that coffee loses its value in fifteen to twenty to twenty-five days after being roasted, so do foods or vegetables lose their food value after being gathered - in the same proportion in hours as coffee would in days. (340-31)

34. (Q) Consider also the steam pressure for cooking foods quickly. Would it be recommended and does it destroy any of the precious vitamins of the vegetables and fruits?
(A) Rather preserves than destroys. (462-14)

7. Evenings - (these foods only added gradually, after the eight to ten day period) - a little chicken or mutton broth, but very little of the meat itself. A little later the body may begin with stewed chicken, or broiled chicken or broiled fish, and well-cooked vegetables - but not with too much grease in same. Even these vegetables and the chicken or fish would be better cooked in the Patapar paper or a steam cooker. (133-4)

Karma & Grace

An article by John Van Auken.

Today, those of us seeking our own personal spirituality are especially aware of the influence of karma and grace. Let’s explore these two forces, and let’s begin at the very beginning.

In conceiving us, God gave us the gifts of individual consciousness and free will. With these we were to come to know ourselves to be ourselves, and yet choose to be one with the Whole (God, others, and ourselves). Only with independent consciousness and free will could we choose to be God’s companions and co-creators. Yet, these powers are often compared to a two-edged sword, because they can lead us towards heavenly oneness or towards hellish selfishness. Each of us has to learn how to bring our mind and will in closer harmony with God’s. But learning implies mistakes, and mistakes with the mind and will can be very harmful.

Therefore, before the two great gifts were given (consciousness and free will), God established a simple but universal law: whatever we do with our mind and will comes back to us, not as punishment or retribution but as education and enlightenment. The law is intended to help us appreciate the effects of our individual thoughts, words, and actions upon God, others, and even ourselves. We recognize this law when we say, “What goes around, comes around.” In the scriptures it is written: “As you sow, so shall you reap”; “With what measure you measure, so shall it be measured to you.” Even proof-oriented scientists observe that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is the law of action and reaction, cause and effect, the law of karma.

The law is unavoidable and immutable. Jesus teaches that not one jot will be erased from it. How then can any of us recover from mistakes? How are we to learn, if every misuse or abuse brings reactions? Are we now trapped in a tangled web of karmic backlash to our past actions, words, and thoughts? Cayce’s readings teach that, “God has not left us without a way.” That way is grace.

Grace is that wonderful spirit that imbues every fiber of our being when we practice the fruits of the spirit: kindness, patience, understanding, forgiveness, love, gentleness, fellowship, and long-suffering. Cayce says that “against these there is no law.” But he says “doubt, fear, avarice, greed, selfishness, self-will; these are the fruits of the evil forces. Against such there is a law.” Obviously we want to choose grace over karma.

Jesus calls us to “learn what this means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” The meaning is that a built-in grace already exists in this exacting law of karma. Here’s how it works: The law is absolute, right? Yes. Therefore, what we do or think comes back to us. Then, if we begin to understand mistakes by others, the law -- always at work and never compromising -- reacts with understanding toward our mistakes! If we begin to forgive others, the law reacts with forgiveness for us. And, best of all, if we forget the misuse or abuse by others, then ours is forgotten, too.

This is the deeper meaning behind Jesus’ words “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Few of us could sacrifice enough to make up for all our mistakes, but having mercy toward others who have misused their gifts brings mercy to us. The law is absolute. Therefore, jots of understanding, forgiveness, and forgetting come back upon us as we give them out to others. It is perfect. It is simple. What we give, we receive. The law is filled with latent grace waiting to be released.

Do we seek forgiveness? Then, we must give forgiveness. Seek understanding? Then, give understanding to another. If we want our sins forgotten in the Mind of the All-Knowing, then we need to forget what others have done to us. Let it go; release it. Stop holding onto little spites, hurts, and bitterness. They weigh us down, limiting our ability to grow closer to heavenly consciousness. Ancient Egyptians weighed the heart to see if it was light or heavy. A heavy heart caused the soul to sink into the underworld, but a light one allowed the soul to rise through the heavens. Cayce explains that the High Priest Ra Ta rejuvenated his body by “casting aside the years of toil and strife through which the body had passed,” 696-1. In other words, he let go of the things that had aged him. By letting go, we may release ourselves and others from the heavy burdens of regret, disappointment, self-doubt, and guilt. Just let them go! Shake them off, get up, and get going again. But for this to work, we must also do it for all those we meet -- allowing them to be freed of their burdens and our judgments.

Most of our opportunities to grow in grace will not be with strangers, for the hardest to forgive are those closest to us: parents, siblings, spouses, children, coworkers, and friends. These relationships bring the greatest challenges and opportunities each day. And, we may also think that the greater opportunities for soul growth concern life and death issues, but they more often concern little everyday situations. The very next person that walks up to us brings potential grace. To release this grace, we simply have to use our God-given mind and will to choose to interact positively.

However, we can take this too far, allowing others to do whatever they wish despite their influence on themselves, others, and God. Tough love is as much as part of the journey as understanding. Sometimes, we help our loved ones, friends, and coworkers more with loving truth. Jesus did not ignore Peter’s errors, but called him to rise to a higher level.

Karma and grace go hand-in-hand, because the law is so perfectly crafted. Grace is the rosebud on the thorny stem of karma. The blooming of this bud is dependent on our present use of free will and mind. Cayce taught, “God is Law, and the Law is Love.” The disciple Peter wisely observed that “Love covers a multitude of sins.” The disciple John taught that “God is love; and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” Cayce asked us all: “How can it be then that you do not understand God loves you?” Sensing our questioning reply, given that our lives are not always happy, he stated: “Why do you suffer? It is mercy, it is justice to your soul! For those things that are cares of the flesh and of the Earth cannot inherit eternal life. Hence life alters, life changes in the experiences of individuals through their sojourns in the Earth, and thus you learn your lessons, even as He; for though He were the Son, though you are His sons and daughters, yet must you learn obedience through the things that you suffer.” Karma is a teacher. Freedom comes with responsibility. And oneness is not achieved without cooperation. Obeying the law of love is required.

Let’s live in grace by applying the fruits of the spirit each day.

A.R.E. Meeting for 06/28/10

Leader: Nancy
Reader: Sylvia

We finished the chapter on "Glory." Next week we will start the chapter on "Knowledge."

The experiment this week is:

What is something seemingly 'evil' or 'bad' in the personality or behavior of one person with whom you interact? What is the essence of good--good misapplied or misconstured--that is in that apparent flaw. Try reinforcing or reflecting the essential good which is there.

A.R.E. Meeting for 06/21/10

Leader: Nancy
Reader: Bob

We started the chapter on "Glory." Next week will begin the section "Glory of the Body."

The experiment this week is:

Recognize and respect the unique ways in which people around you are able to serve. Even if you are not directly aided by such service nor are you normally interested in such types of action, notice others in this way. If possible, find ways to reinforce these people with a word of support or appreciation.

A.R.E Meeting for 6/14/10

Leader: Nancy
Reader: Eric

We finished the chapter on "Destiny of the Soul," and next week will begin "Glory."

The experiment this week is:

Work on being more sincere in your relationship with others, with God, and with yourself. Be clear about your singleness of purpose in relationships. Demonstrate more clearly to others just what that purpose is.

Simone Gabbay on the Edgar Cayce Diet

Simone Gabbay discusses the Edgar Cayce diet, holistic nutrition, medicinal foods, mind/body medicine, and holistic healing on Jill Hewlett's Body, Mind, Spirit in Motion Show.

Part 1 of 3


Part 2 of 3


Part 3 of 3

A.R.E. Meeting for 06/07/10

Leader: Greg (for Nancy)
Reader: Greg

We began the chapter on "Destiny of the Soul," and made it through three sections. Next week we will begin with the section "The Activities of the Soul in the Material."

The experiment this week is:

Select an experience which might be called a dishonor for you. It is likely to be something you find yourself being ashamed of, embarrassed about or criticizing yourself for. Turn around your response to this. What was the lesson you learned from what happened? Try to put that lesson into action in your life rather than continually dwelling on those past events.

A.R.E. Meeting for 05/24/10

Leader: Eric
Reader: John

We completed the chapter on "Destiny of the Body." After a break for the Memorial Day holiday, we will start in June on "Destiny of the Soul."

The experiment this week is:

Treat your body in a way which reflects an awareness that it is eternal.

During the following week our experiment will be:

Practice using this training exercise for meditation. Let it carry over as well into your daily living. In tense times take a moment to think of a spiritual affirmation, then harmonize mental awareness with breathing. This can be done with your eyes open, even in the midst of daily affairs.

A.R.E. Meeting for 05/17/10

Leader: Eric
Reader: Sylvia

Eric pushed us along the chapter "Destiny of the Body." We are up to "How Should We Regard the Experiences of the Physical Body?"

The experiment is:

Sacrifice something related to your body--not in the sense of giving something up, but rather to lift that something to a greater sense of purpose or love.

Glad Helpers Healing Prayer Group

On 25 May 2010, I listened to Refections: The Wisdom of Edgar Cayce and heard an interview with David Riblet from the Glad Helpers Healing Prayer Group in Virginia Beach. He discussed the purpose of the group, how it was founded, and how they conduct their sessions.

The group was founded in 1931 and Edgar Cayce gave 65 readings for the group (the 281 Series). The group recently got funding to publish a Meditation book with those readings, and it should be available soon.

The group contains members from all over the world. David said that being a member means being of service to those who come seeking healing of different types (physical, financial, job seeking, looking for a house, and so on).

David described three types of prayer used by the group:

• Direct prayer--This is for those who ask directly for prayer of help.
• Surround prayer--Used when someone has a concern for someone else, where the person is not directly asking for prayer. They get surrounded by light. Sometimes people who ask for prayer directly get surround prayer. There was a case of a person suffering from addiction who was given direct prayer and they received so much energy that it magnified the problem. This can also happen with people suffering from alzheimers, so they get surround prayer also. When a person gets surrounded by light they can use it in any way that is best for them and do not get overpowered.
• Passed on prayer--This is for those who have passed on. It surrounds them and their families.

Many times the group does not want to know why someone is asking for help. What people have in the physical realm started spiritually or in their minds. The group prays that they get the healing they need, but they do not want to just pray for the condition.

I was interested in how the Glad Helper meetings are conducted compared to a study group and see many similarities. The meetings are held at the A.R.E on Wednesday mornings at 9:30 am, and they take turns facilitating. Visitors are welcome to attend. They begin the meeting by studying the 281 Series readings. David has been a member for three years and has just completed one pass through the readings. Sometimes they just discuss a paragraph and sometime they discuss a page. Around 10:00 am they prepare for meditation. They say the Lord's Prayer, chant ah-ray-ohm three times, and surround themselves with protection. Then they meditate for 10 minutes.

After meditation the group reads the names of those seeking help from a personal list and remember the helpers who are not present. They also have a compiled list of names of those who have contacted the A.R.E. There is a laying on of hands that also occurs.

The group asks those wanting prayer to also pray for someone else. This completes the circle. As we pray for others, we heal ourselves. David said the Search for God study groups are about the qualities of life and the Glad Helpers are about applying them.

A.R.E. Meeting for 05/10/10

Leader: Greg (for Eric)
Reader: Greg

We began the chapter "Destiny of the Body" and read three sections. We are up to "What is Meant by Presenting Our Bodies a Living Sacrifice?"

The experiment is:

Complete the exercise in visualization for your body as described above. Try it regularly for serveral days.

The visualization described in the section is for health and perfect integration with mind and spirit, and goes as follows:

1. Get into a comfortable position, sitting or lying down.

2. Focus your attention for about a minute on your slow, deep breathing.

3. Take a total of at least two minutes to move mentally through areas of your body, beginning with your feet and moving up the ankles, calves, etc., up to your head. At each point, feel the life and energy of that part of your body, the consciousness which is there. Speak to that part of your body, to those cells, and direct them to be relaxed and attuned to the Christ Consciousness.

4. Now work with visualization and awareness at the level of each of the seven spiritual centers. Move from the first center (the gonad center) up to the seventh center (pituitary center). Spend about a half a minute with each one. Apply that Edgar Cayce reading which says to fill each center with the ideal. You may wish to visualize the white light at each of these points. Most importantly feel a sense of your spiritual ideal touching and healing the patterns of energy stored at the respective center.

5. Close the exercise by feeling your body to be a channel of light and take a few moments to pray for others for whom you have concern.

A.R.E. Meeting for 05/03/10

Leader: Eric
Reader: Nancy

We finished the chapter "Destiny of the Mind." Next week we start the chapter "Destiny of the Body."

The experiment is:

For a week take special note of your dreams and note the precognitive process that is in many dreams. You will find dreams that predict the physical manifestations of things which you have set in motion at a mental level. If these dreams of physical events do not look favorable to you, work on changing your thought patterns. Observe whether or not such a change in your thinking immediately affects your dreams.

Why Prayer Is Important Now

Tina D. Erwin posted an article on the A.R.E. blog where she poses the question as to whether prayer for major world catastrophes helps much. She then gives an analogy of what happens during these events:

When a disaster of great magnitude occurs, there is a wave of grief, horror, fear, anger, bewilderment, and shaken faith that sweeps the whole planet. In the ether, this wave looks like black soot. It adds to the soot that is already there, but it is such a huge volume of new sooty blackness that we can feel the difference. We feel bad, achy, irritable, sad, and prone to tears and have queasy stomachs.

With this analogy to soot, I like the way she describes how prayer works to overcome it:

Prayer is the one spiritual tool that works in the ether. Prayer cleans up this sooty blackness, transmuting it into pure light. Prayer that comes from our hearts and is sent to all of those who are grieving, injured, afraid, confused and alone helps to clear them so that they can think more clearly. Prayer cleans the blackness of hurt and replaces it with seeds of hope and energy. Prayer is the energy that people need to get up another day and face a shattered life. That is what we can give to a person we don't know and to a place we haven't been. Prayer opens the way to cleaning up the physical mess the on-scene people feel and see.

According to Erwin, even when we are praying for others, we are also helping ourselves:

Prayer helps us to heal ourselves. As we grieve for others, we are often grieving for things that we have lost as well. When we pray, we open ourselves up to pure light and goodness. We may not realize it, but we fill ourselves up with this light so that we can send it to other people. This serves two purposes: we are healed and we are helping other people to heal.

And what kind of prayer should we use?

Christ was once asked about what was the best prayer and His answer was eloquent in its simplicity: the prayer that springs naturally from your heart, the one that you feel deep within you, the one that is the easiest for you to use to communicate with God.

A.R.E. Meeting for 04/26/10

Leader: Sylvia
Reader: Greg

We inched through one more section in the chapter "Destiny of the Mind." We will begin next week with the section "Signs Along the Way."

The experiment is:

Use as an affirmation for the day (not for meditation but in waking life events) "I am a god." Be sensitive to the creative potential and the responsibility which this entails.

A.R.E. Meeting for 04/19/10

Leader: Sylvia
Reader: Eric

We moved forward two more sections in the chapter "Destiny of the Mind." We will begin next week with the section "Mind in Relation to the Soul Body."

The experiment is:

At the end of the day, just as you are going to bed, take several minutes to review your thoughts of the day. What recurrent thought patterns do you observe? What is the emotional component related to each one? For those you would like to change, do one of three things:

1) Select a potential replacement emotion to hold the next day.
2) Try to resolve the emotion by thinking about it or praying about it.
3) Make a commitment to let go of the emotion if you see it is merely a negative one you have been enjoying.

At the end of the meeting we talked about the four elements in the body. Here is the quote:

Knowing the tendencies, supply in the vital energies that ye call the vitamins, or elements. For, remember, while we give many combinations, there are only four elements in your body, - water, salt, soda and iodine. These are the basic elements, they make all the rest! Each vitamin as a component part of an element is simply a combination of these other influences, given a name mostly for confusion to individuals, by those who would tell you what to do for a price!Reading 2533-6

The Mind

The following article from John Van Auken adds to the discussion we had in our study group this week and reinforces what Eric said:

The Mind
by John Van Auken

From his deep attunement to the Mind of God, that Universal Consciousness, Edgar Cayce stated that mind is the light, the builder, and the bridge to liberation and enlightenment. Here is his perspective on the mind:

“The Spirit moved ... and there was Light -- Mind. The Light became the light of men.”

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. How? The Mind of God moved, and matter, form, came into being. Mind, then, in God the Father, is the builder. How much more, then, would or should Mind be the builder in the experience of those that have put on Christ or God, in Him, in His coming into the earth?”

“Each entity finds itself in a three-dimensional phase of existence or experience: the world without, the world within, and the mind that may span or bridge the two.”

Mind is the light, the builder, and the bridge between spirit and body.

He explained that life, all life, begins in the spirit, which is the creative force that brings all into existence. Then mind takes this life essence, and builds with it. Finally, the physical is the result: “Mind the builder, the spirit the creator, the material [is] that created. Great truth! Keep it before you.” It certainly is a powerful concept to keep before us. All outer “things” have their origin in the unseen spiritual forces, then find expression in the mind, and ultimately appear out here in the physical. So often we physical beings think that the outer, physical forces are the more powerful. But Cayce frequently encouraged us to accept that “the unseen forces are greater than the seen.” If we want to change something, it must begin in the spirit and the mind.

“That you think, that you put your Mind to work upon, to live upon, to feed upon, to live with, to abide with, to associate with in the mind, that your soul-body becomes! That is the law. That is the destiny.” He expands upon this: “Mind [is] the builder, the appreciator, the paralleler, the drawer of conclusions, the chooser....” And, Cayce says, mind is driven by “the ideal.”

The Ideal is Mind’s Navigator

“As you contemplate, as you meditate, as you look upon the Mind, know the Mind has many windows. And as you look out of your inner self, know where you are looking, [where] you are seeking. What is your ideal? What would you have your mind-body to become?”

In a deep contemplation session on this teaching, my deeper mind saw the ancient boat of Pharaoh, with its twenty-four oarsmen and the navigator’s hut on the bow. As I sought to know the meaning of this imagery, Cayce’s teaching about the twelve nobles before the Throne of God in the Book of the Revelation came to mind. He said that they represent the twelve paired cranial nerves (24) in our own heads! As these nerves turn their attention away from worldly pursuits and toward heavenly ones, they bring a new heaven and a new earth, meaning a new mind, a new body. As I reflected on this, I realized that the twenty-four oarsmen on Pharaoh’s boat represented these same nerves and their ability to bring us across the barrier that the Nile River represented, that barrier between what the Egyptians called “the land of the living,” which is the place of the physically incarnate, and “the land of the dead,” the realm of the spiritually living. I realized that the navigator was indeed the ideal held as we sought to cross the barrier between this world and the spiritual.

“That upon which it [the mind] feeds it becomes. The most important experience of this or any individual entity is to first know what is the ideal -- spiritually. Who and what is your pattern?” Cayce frequently said that Christ is the consciousness and Jesus is the pattern. Jesus, for Cayce, is the ideal pattern for humans to use to build their own mind -- just as one would use a pattern to make clothes from new fabric. Jesus exemplified a human at one with God and making that oneness manifest in his life among others. Cayce often noted that Jesus simply went around doing good according to God’s inner guidance to Him. An ideal way for all of us to live.

We have covered the topic of ideals in detail in a previous issue, but for our purposes here, consider this from Cayce: “What, then, is an ideal? As concerning your fellow man, He gave, ‘As you would that others do to you, do you even so to them’; take no thought, worry not, be not overanxious about the body. For He knows what you have need of. In the place you are, in the consciousness in which you find yourself, is that which is needed today, now, for your greater, your better, your more wonderful unfoldment. This is that attitude of mind that puts away hates, malice, anxiety, jealousy. And it creates in their stead the fruits of the spirit: love, patience, mercy, longsuf-fering, kindness, gentleness. Against these there is no law. They break down barriers; they bring peace and harmony; they bring the outlook upon life of not finding fault because someone ‘forgot,’ someone’s judgment was bad, someone was selfish today. These you can over-look, for so did He.”

Such a state of attitude, of mind, toward life sets up a powerful map for navigating oneself through the day’s challenges and opportunities. This is an ideal, a navigational star by which to guide oneself each day. With this ideal, the mind approaches every obstacle, every crosscurrent, every undertow, and winds its way through them by holding to the ideal, the map set before us as the best way. This is the power of an ideal held by mind as we live life. Yet, as we grow and learn, we may see the need to adjust our ideal. Cayce encouraged us to write our ideals down, but to do so in pencil. As we gain a greater under-standing we see over the next mountain, we gain an increasingly better perspective of the whole truth, the way, and we adjust our ideal accordingly.

Thoughts are Things

Another fundamental Cayce teaching is: “Thoughts are things, and as their currents run they become miracles or crimes in the experiences of individual life.”

For the deeply attuned Cayce, thoughts were as real as actions. In fact, during his readings from the Book of Life, he had to strain to determine whether the person he was reading for had actually done something or had just thought about doing it! “Thoughts are things; just as the Mind is as concrete as a post or tree,” and the Akashic Record, the Book of Life, records them as such.

This is a hard one to hear. The first time I read it, it pained me to think how many times my thoughts had done harm to another and placed a negative influence in the Collective Mind. Watching our thoughts is important.

Watch Self Pass By

Cayce was once asked: “How may I learn to know self as I am known?” He answered: “Being able to literally stand aside and watch self pass by! Take the time to occasionally be sufficiently introspective of that, that may happen in self’s relation to others, to see the reactions of others as to that as was done by self; for no man lives to himself, no man dies to him-self.... Be able, then, to see self as others see you. Stand aside and watch self pass by!” This is a powerful learning tool.

For Cayce, this was not just good mental advice, it was good physical advice: “If the body will watch self and the reactions of the various foods or preparations, and draw a comparison from what may be termed a combination of all the various authorities, then the body will find what is best for self. See?” Want to know the best diet for yourself? Watch how the various foods and cooking methods affect you. This information will be better than anyone else can give you, because it is revealed in your own body.

The Subliminal Mind

Dreams and meditations are two of Cayce most recommended means for fully engaging the power of our minds. According to Cayce, our subliminal mind will engage with our outer mind to review and discuss all influences: “In this there is seen both the action of the subconscious and subliminal mind and the physical mind, reasoning together, as it were, of the past, present, and future conditions as relating to the mental attitude of the entity; for, as is seen in the final analysis of the real Mind, the Builder, and as this is presented in the view of the dreams, the meditations of the entity in those days when the inner consciousness of the entity builded in the mental forces those conditions as would bring the great joy, peace, and happiness to the entity, these, as we see, took on physical forms in the mental aspirations of the entity.”

Seek within ourselves through dreams, meditations, and deep reflections, and our subliminal mind will convey the insights.

Even God will help, as seen in this Cayce reading: “Thus the individual entity finds ... that the first creation of God, the mind, is the way; or the way through which light may come to the entity from the Father. Even as He brought to remembrance the promise, for memory brought in the light of consciousness is the outpouring of spirit. (Memory is the mind of the soul.) Keep not only the body clean, the mind pure, but in the light of the spiritual forces as aid -- keep in at-onement with same.” [The parenthetical statement about memory is Cayce’s.]

Subconscious: The Police

“The only real guide that may be relied upon is that subconscious force that is as the police to the entity, both in the physical, material, and in the spiritual planes. And, as this [the subconscious] will guide and direct the entity, in that same way and manner as the police in their regular capacity ... in the physical life.” What a fascinating concept. Our subconscious is our conscience, our policing power. “That is, the police, the subconscious mind, represent the law that guides, directs, and that way upon which the entity, which any entity, may rely for the enforcement of that which will keep in peace, in war, in any condition, that straight way for the best interest of each and every individual.”

However, even as physical police departments can become corrupt, so can our subconscious police become misdirected by powerful suggestions of self-doubt, self-condemnation. “In the same way and manner as these (the police) may become subject to all of the vicissitudes that are ever present within the conditions in life, so may the subconscious forces, misdirected, misguided, or seeking to belittle the self ... through its experience in the Earth’s plane.” The only way to protect against this misdirection is to hold to a higher ideal that lifts us beyond our self-doubt, self-condemnation. God does not condemn us. God has erected no barrier. Self is the only obstacle to full enlightenment and reunion.

Levels of Consciousness

Cayce identifies three levels of consciousness or dimensions of mind: conscious, subconscious, and superconscious.

Conscious mind is the level that we are most familiar with. It is the level within which our personality and three-dimensional self develops and has much of its activity.

The subconscious is that part of our minds that bridges the outer self with the spiritual self. According to Cayce, the subconscious is both in the body, through the autonomic system, and beyond the body, in the soul realms of telepathy, non-physical life, and timelessness. This mind is the mind of the soul, says Cayce. As the mind of our outer self is the conscious mind and that portion containing our personality, so the subconscious mind contains our developing “individuality,” which Cayce identifies as our true self.

The superconscious level is the portion made in the image of the Creator, as recorded in Genesis. It is that portion of us that is a god or godling, as the ancient Egyptians termed it. Cayce explained that the superconscious is a thing apart from anything earthly, and only makes its presence known or is knowable when the soul-self lifts itself and portions of the conscious mind up into the vast, expansive level that is the superconscious. This is the portion of our being that Cayce referred to when he said that “not only God is God, but self is a part of that oneness.”

To know the superconscious, Cayce says that one must learn to achieve deep levels of meditation. He said that if a dream feels more like a vision than a dream, then it most likely originated from this highest level of consciousness.

At death, the conscious mind is gradually absorbed into the subconscious (the mind of the surviving soul), and the subconscious becomes the operative mind, with the super-conscious now in the position the subconscious held while we were incarnate. Later, upon reincarnation, the subconscious projects another portion of itself into the newly developing outer, three-dimensional mind. Intuitions, “knowings,” and psychic perceptions come from the projected subconscious. Cayce explains that not all of the subconscious is projected; some of it remains in very high levels of perception and activity. But the portion that is in the body maintains the autonomic systems of the body (respiration, circulation, digestion, etc.) and the seven spiritual centers or chakras, which correspond with the seven endocrine glands.

We may feel that we do not know our subconscious soul-self, but we do, and we are comfortable with it. For example, when we are waking with a dream, but notice that our bladder is full and go empty it, only to return to the bed with no recall of the dream, then we have just experienced our two selves. One is the dreaming mind, the subconscious soul-mind, and the other is in charge of the bladder and the central nervous system that moves the body to the bathroom (somatic system). Yet, notice how comfortable we were in the dream state. Notice how we felt that WE were dreaming. That is because this is the true self, and we know it well. Yet, there is a veil that drops when we move outward, a veil that is opaque. The outer self cannot see back through that veil, cannot recall the contents of the dream, because it never had the dream and was only awakened when the physical body needed to move. Now you can see how we can die to this body and this world, and still live, still be active. Sleep, the shadow of death, is that condition in miniature each night.

Mind is our true nature. It is that portion of us that lives forever. What would it be like to live our lives as minds in bodies, rather than bodies with minds? Surprisingly, Cayce considered the mind to be a savior, a redeemer. It is that portion of our being that can mend and restore us. Let’s engage our minds and fully awaken to our spiritual selves.

A.R.E. Meeting for 04/12/10

Leader: Sylvia
Reader: Cindi

We began the chapter "Destiny of the Mind." We made it through the "Introduction" and section on "Destiny," and will begin next week with the section on "Mind in Relation to the Mental Body."

The experiment is:

Meet circumstances which interrupt the flow of your intentions with optimism and a belief that you can make the interruption part of a process working together for good.

A.R.E. Meeting for 04/05/10

Leader: Sylvia
Reader: Greg

We welcome Martinaya, a friend of Sylvia's, who joined us this week. We finished the chapter on "Desire." Next week we will start the chapter on "Destiny and the Mind."

Our experiment this week is:

When you find yourself desiring something for the future, refocus that desire away from "pre-forming" how it will happen. Instead focus attention on the spirit of what you desire to have happen. When the time arrives for these future events, try to be in the now and to be creative.

A.R.E. Meeting for 03/29/10

Leader: Nancy (for Cindi)
Reader: Eric

This week we started the chapter on "Desire." We will start the section titled "Spiritual Desires" next week.

The experiment is:

Be aware of how you are using your will and observe that by your choices you are strengthening certain desires. Try to make choices that will reinforce those desires which lead you closer to your ideal.

Example: Choose to take an evening walk rather than have dessert, etc.

Feel the Power of Affirmations

The following article was written by John Van Auken about the power of affirmations:

Of all the wonderful guidance to come through Edgar Cayce’s attunement to the Universal Consciousness, using an affirmation is unique. Affirmations can help us change our mind, mood, and health, and reach new levels of awareness and happiness. He gave over a hundred affirmations to people seeking physical, mental, or spiritual help.

From his perspective, an affirmation is an ideal structured in a potently suggestive statement. He instructed us to speak (aloud or silently) the affirmation, being sure to maintain a consciousness of the meaning of the words, and to speak it with a positive, expectant attitude, until the whole of our mental being was affected positively by the meaning. He suggested that the affirmation be repeated three to five times, but the goal was to achieve a "full, positive response" from the mental portion of our being. Try this. It works.

I have selected three of Cayce's affirmations, which are at the end of this article. The first one was intended to take hold of desires, needs, and attitudes that we all experience in life and move them to a higher, more universally attuned condition, resulting in greater harmony and happiness in our lives. After sharing this affirmation, Cayce sharply instructed the person to "leave it with Him" rather than to keep wondering and doubting in anxious waiting for immediate results. He wanted people to feel the power of the affirmation in their mental self and then let it go free. The reason for this, he explained, was that the "unseen forces" are more powerful than the seen and work in a special way. The unseen forces work best when we have faith in them, a demonstrated faith shown by allowing them to work their magical way through our bodies, minds, hearts, and lives. He said that the spirit of patience, expectancy, and contentment are fertile soil from which the unseen forces can bring forth their miracles.

The second affirmation was designed to help a person find the best way to be a channel of blessings to others. Cayce explained that the phrase "my going in and my coming out" (taken from Exodus 28:35) is speaking about going in to the Holy Place within us, where God meets with us, and coming out from the Holy Place to relationships with others and our outer work. The going in is mostly done during sleep, prayer, meditation, and moments of reflection and stillness.

The third affirmation was designed to connect us with what Cayce called "the Christ Consciousness," a state of mind and perspective that best channels the power of light and love into and through us -- an excellent state to experience.

I used the first affirmation and was amazed by its impact on me. Try one and send me your results.

"Let my desire and my needs be in Thy hands, Thou Maker, Creator of the universe and all the forces and powers therein! And may I conform my attitude, my purpose, my desire, to that Thou hast as an activity for me. (Now leave it with Him and go to work!)" --462-8

"Lord, here am I! Use Thou me in the ways as Thou knowest best. May my going in and my coming out always be acceptable in Thy sight, my Lord, my Strength, and my Redeemer." --2803-3

"Let that mind be in me that was in Him, who knew that of Himself He could do nothing, yet in the power of the light of the Father of all may we, may I, may all, come to know His love the better. Thy will, O Father, be done in me just now." --436-3

Edgar Cayce and the Kabbalah

John Van Auken discusses his recent book about the concepts in Kabbalah and how Edgar Cayce reaffirmed some of these concepts. The Kabbalah covers soul growth and deep insights to the presence of God in this reality (the ten emanations of God) and the four planes of existence, the seven heavens, the 22 channels of the creative energy, numerology, talisman, incantations, and magic. John said that personally, he "was fascinated by the descriptions of how one could make passage through dimensions of consciousness within themselves to actually connect with the emanations of the creator."

A.R.E. Meeting for 03/22/10

Leader: Nancy (for Cindi)
Reader: Sylvia

We finished the chapter "God, the Father, and His Manifestations in the Earth." Next week we will start the chapter on "Desire."

This coming week you pick your own experiment from the last four for the chapter we finished. In abbreviated form, these are:

1. Choose a temptation and act in a way that benefits are derived by the greater whole.

2. Try living your life as a recognition that you are Jesus' friend, not just an obedient servant.

3. Being sympathetic and supportive, widen your area of responsibility, and be supportive beyond your habit, and ask what you've learned.

4. Smile frequently, giving a hope and joy about life.

Rewriting Your Life Script

Barbara Lane from the A.R.E will be giving a workshop in Denver on May 8, 2010 called Rewriting Your Life Script: Hypnosis, Healing, and the Power of Your Mind.

For details, see this link.

A.R.E. Meeting for 03/15/10

Leader: Cindi
Reader: John

We welcome Gene Bagenstos who attended our meeting tonight for the first time. We made it through one more section in the chapter "God, the Father, and His Manifestations in the Earth." We will begin the section next week titled "We Are Manifestations of God."

Next week Nancy volunteered to take over for Cindi, who will be out the next two weeks.

Our experiment is:

Observe how you evaluate the greatness of others. Work at recognizing and reinforcing (or reflecting) greatness in the lives of ordinary people who give of themselves and love.

A.R.E. Meeting for 03/08/10

Leader: Cindi
Reader: Nancy

You can say we continued to make progress as we moved through one more section in the chapter "God, the Father, and His Manifestations in the Earth." We will begin the section next week titled "Perfect Manifestation in the Earth."

Our experiment is the next one (at our rate, we'll do them all):

Explore in your own life what it means to be patient and forgiving and yet still be able to 'be angry and sin not.' Act on anger instead of in anger.

A.R.E. Meeting for 03/01/10

Leader: Cindi
Reader: Greg

We moved through one more section in the chapter "God, the Father, and His Manifestations in the Earth." We will begin the section titled "The Manifestations of the Father in the Earth."

Our experiment is the next one:

Practice true consistency in your relationships to self, others and God. Consider the things you do repeatedly--by habit--and try to bring conscious awareness to them: awareness of how the things you are doing relate to the whole. For example, on my drive to work in the morning I will be more aware of people and places. I will be conscious of why I have chosen to go to the place of work which I do. I will be aware of the part I play in this rush-hour traffic and cooperate to help get people safely to work.

A.R.E. Meeting for 02/22/10

Leader: John
Reader: Eric

We finished the chapter on "Day and Night," and started the chapter on "God, the Father, and His Manifestations in the Earth." We are up to the section "God, the Father."

Our experiment is the first one:

Make a list of ways that you seek God (e.g., meditation, prayer, dreams, physical attunement procedures, reading material, giving to other people). Select a category which you realize has become rather rigid or habitual--that is, much of the spirit and creativity associated with it is now missing. Try a new way or form or procedure for seeking God in that area.

The Best Exercise

The following is an article by Carol Baraff that appeared here.

Nowhere is the term “Use it or lose it” more apropos than in matters of physical fitness. Trim, flexible, well contoured bodies are, by definition, bodies in motion. Sedentary habits quickly give rise to less complimentary adjectives. More importantly, the exterior reflects what’s going on inside, and exercise has far-reaching benefits for circulation, muscles, nerves and more.

Although the best exercises for us must (sometimes by default) be defined as those we actually do, more specific parameters are found in the Cayce readings and in a highly recommended book, The Edgar Cayce Handbook for Health Through Drugless Therapy by master therapist Harold J. Reilly and Ruth Hagy Brod.

One thing we learn is that certain exercises are best for us at certain times of day. For instance, “setting up” exercises, in which the arms are swung and circled and the upper torso rotated were typically suggested first thing in the morning. Cayce commented that this will bring strength to the lungs, vitality to the blood supply, and a new life, as it were, to the muscular forces of the body (4462-1).

Morning calisthenics also often included rising on the toes and stretching the arms high over the head while breathing in and then swinging them back and lowering them slowly while breathing out. This is an excellent exercise for posture and for aiding in keeping this balance (1773-1)

A type of routine that included stretching, bending from the waist and the well-known head and neck exercises, in which the neck is gently stretched in each direction and then rotated both ways was recommended for giving a better circulation through the whole area from the abdomen, through diaphragm, through the lungs, head and neck (470-37).”

The stretching and bending motion in particular (in this case morning and evening) was considered a specific for hemorrhoids, with the claim that if this is taken regularly these will disappear—of themselves 2823-2)!”

A typical Cayce guideline for choosing a program based on time of day was vertical calisthenics in the morning and horizontal ones that exercised the legs and lower torso in the evening. Exercises for the blood flow away from head…swinging, circular motion then of lower portion of body in evenings (298-11) Exceptions to this rule seem to be cat stretches and walking.

Exercises that imitate the arching back and extended limbs of the cat were so highly regarded that Cayce stated categorically, No better exercises may be taken than…the cat-stretching exercises (687-2)

Walking was almost universally endorsed, when properly done:

Walking is the best exercise, but don’t take this spasmodically. Have a regular time and do it, rain or shine (1968-9).

Walking is the best exercise, but this—though—in the OPEN when at all practical (1530-2).

Walking is one of the best of exercises; walking, swimming, anything that has the calisthenics; tennis, handball, badminton; any of these activities for the body (2153-4).

This focus on the health benefits of walking and other types of exercise has received recent confirmation from several long term studies. One, based on records made during the well known Framingham Heart Study, concluded that even waiting until age 50 to start a “very active” exercise program significantly improved heart health and increased life expectancy by up to three and a half years. Another examining close to 500 adults found that cardiovascular fitness was improved by only half an hour of moderate to brisk walking at least three times a week. A third study, which followed nearly 40,000 healthy women over several years, concluded that whose who regularly walked at least one hour a week reduced their risk of coronary heart disease by half.

Finding the right exercise program is an individual matter which takes experimentation to get it right. One clue is that the body will feel deeply relaxed and vitally energized at the same time:

It’s well that each body, everybody, take exercise to counteract the daily routine activity so as to produce rest (416-1).

The best way to acquire the correct amount of pep is to take the exercise (288-38)!

Yes, it’s true. Fitness simply feels better.

A.R.E. Meeting for 02/08/10

Leader: John
Reader: Greg

We are still in the chapter on "Day and Night," and are about to begin the section titled "Experiences Regarding Day and Night."

Our experiment is:

Make a list of the major material things and possessions in your life. As a self-study, write next to each one your current attitude toward that material possession and what your ideal mental attitude would be.

Example: My house. Current attitude has been one of restlessness, wishing I had a bigger, nicer one. Mental ideal would be a sense of thankfulness and a desire to take really good care of the house I have, trusting that if it is best for me to move into another place, the way will be shown to me.

A.R.E. Meeting for 02/01/10

Leader: Greg (for John)
Reader: Eric

We started the chapter on "Day and Night," and are into the section titled "Day unto Day Uttereth Speech." We are at the fifth paragraph that starts "Let us face the question."

Our experiment is:

Tell yourself that for a week you will let go of anxieties about how you will obtain what you think you need from the material world in order to be happy. Make a special effort to put God first and be open to receive what He knows you most need. Affirm that you will trust God to bring you that you have need of.

The Secret of the Sphinx

Watch this YouTube video to see what Edgar Cayce said about the Sphinx. Scientists say the Sphinx was made in 2,500 BC, whereas Cayce says it was 10,500 BC. Some scientists are now starting to believe Cayce because of water erosion that could not have occurred at that time, and the layout of the monuments at Giza being a mirror image of what existed  in the sky in 10,500 BC. In addition, there is a lot of speculation of what is in the chamber near the left paw, a chamber that Cayce prognosticated.

Dream Quotes

A dream which is not interpreted is like a letter which is not read.
- The Talmud

Dreams are today’s answers to tomorrow’s questions.
- Edgar Cayce

A.R.E. Meeting for 01/25/10

Leader: Greg
Reader: Sylvia

We finished the chapter on Opportunity this week, so will start next week with the chapter on "Day and Night."

Our experiment is:

Be aware of how different situations and persons require different types of love and service. Try to be especially sensitive to appropriateness in your service.

The Two Witnesses - Edgar Cayce on the Revelation

Rivers of Light Video 8: The Two Witnesses - As part of the process of becoming self-aware, we come to recognize the continuity of consciousness. In other words, we live multiple lives. Edgar Cayce tells us that the little book that is sweet in the mouth and bitter in the belly is the "Book of Life" or "book of remembrance" that contains the story of our past lives as well as our present incarnation.

So the self-analysis process goes on and on - we are constantly being given the opportunity to know ourselves. This is part of the initiation, the purification of mental and emotional patterns that we carry over from one existence to another.

In Chapter Eleven the mighty angel that gave John the book, tells him that two witnesses will be given the power to prophesy and testify. They will be killed and after three days will be raised up and ascend into heaven.

Cayce tells us that the two witnesses, also symbolized as two trees and two candlesticks, represent our past lives in the earth (reincarnation) and our past lives in other realms (planetary sojourns associated with astrology)

A.R.E. Meeting for 01/18/10

Leader: Greg
Reader: Greg (for John)

This week we continued the chapter on "Opportunity." We will start next week with the section "Our Opportunities Should Be Met in Patience."

Our experiment is:

Practice a sense of release, or turning things over to God. Ask for His help frequently. Do the best you can, but know (and live as you know) that by yourself nothing can be accomplished of real value. Write and use as needed your own "release affirmation" such as: "I release this person or situation into the hands of God, trusting that He will bring to both of us that which is most needed."

A.R.E. Meeting for 01/11/10

Leader: Greg
Reader: Cindi

This week we began the chapter on "Opportunity," and read three sections. We will start next week with "The Higher the Ideal the Greater Are the Opportunities."

Our experiment is:

Whenever you find yourself restless or disenchanted with a current situation, become aware of how it has been particularly created for you here and now because it perfectly meets your need for that experience. Thank the Father for it.

A.R.E. Meeting for 01/04/10

Leader: Greg
Reader: Greg

This week we completed the chapter on "Love." Next week, don't forget to bring Book 2.

Our experiment is:

Make an effort to experience the potential within you to love life. Try to have a feeling of trusting life. Look beneath those experiences that seem 'ugly, or heavy, or hard' for a deeper meaning and the hand of the divine. Record instances in which you are able to see life in this way.