Book: Channeling Your Higher Self

What follows are notes taken from Henry Reed's book Channeling Your Higher Self: Edgar Cayce's Concept of the Superconscious Mind and How It Can Transform Your Life. The Location column on the left points to where these notes can be found in the book.

Location		Notes
Introduction, Page xiv		Much of channeling requires you to set aside self. In Reed’s book The Intuitive Heart, he says that simply caring about someone else creates a channel of intuitive understanding about the other person. A willingness to help the other person activates the channel and does not require going into trance.
*Chapter 1, What is Channeling* The Human Being: A Channel of Divine Energy, Page 11		Cayce says the highest psychic realization is that God talks directly to human beings.
What is Channeling? Pages 12–14		Cayce said that every person, as a manifestation of divine energy, is a channel.       A channeler receives something that might otherwise be invisible to others, shapes it into transmittable form, and presents it to others.      A channeler may receive information from a disembodied spirit, from God, from an angel, from plants, or animals. The channeler may simply have an intuition.
*Chapter 2, Listen to Your Intuition* The Secret of Unitary Oneness, Pages 24–29		Intuition is not a creation of the conscious mind. The conscious mind separates us from the rest of life so that we can analyze it with our senses. The conscious mind, which reasons on the basis of the senses, assumes knowledge must come from without.      Cayce’s term for oneness is that there is one spirit, or energy, that unites all of Creation, and permeates everything. Each soul is a projection of God in the same way our thoughts and images are projections of our own mind. Each soul has its own individuality, yet all souls are of one spirit.
The Superconscious Mind, Pages 30–31		There is only one mind, it is universal, and we all have it in common. The term is transpersonal, meaning that except for our conscious mind, mind is not a personal thing, and is shared by all.      The subconscious mind lies between the level of the universal mind and the individual conscious mind, but there are no boundaries in that region. All subconscious minds, of both the living and the dead, are in contact with one another.      The conscious mind is a channel of sensory information. It gets its knowledge from outside the person. The subconscious mind is a channel of telepathic information. It gets its information from other people’s thoughts and experiences. The superconscious mind is a channel of clairvoyance, or universal knowledge. It gets its information directly from the oneness of all life.      Intuition is a super-channel, using information from all the other channels. When it uses the imagination, it speaks through visions and symbolic impressions. When it uses feelings and emotions, it speaks through urges or promptings. When it uses thoughts, it may speak through a voice that we hear inside.
Hearing Voices, Page 40		There are some risks to channeling. Cayce teaches us to anchor our channeling in ideals and purposes so as to direct the receptivity of our channel. By having some purpose focused on serving a real need, we direct the active part of our channel in a constructive manner.
Learning to Listen to the Still, Small Voice, Page 41		Begin with a difficult decision. Think through the alternatives and make the best decision. Make a commitment to that decision. This arouses your entire being, whereas hypothetical thoughts don’t excite the intuitive facility. Sit down, get quiet, and go within. This is the attunement step. Focus on the feelings coming from your highest values and ideals. Ask yourself if the decision is a good one, and get a yes or no response. It is usually the first response to come to mind.
Is Intuition the Same as Psychic?, Page 43		In her book Natural-Born Intuition: How to Awaken and Develop Your Inner Wisdom, Lauren Thibodeau describes psychic as a process of reaching outside of ourselves, while intuition is the process of going within. Reed compares this to facts (coming from the outside) and to wisdom (coming from within).       Cayce sometimes separated intuition from psychic events and sometimes spoke of intuition as psychic ability as when he said that intuition is the highest form of psychic ability.
The Guardian Angel, Page 46		Cayce explained that our guardian angel resides where our portion of the superconscious mind becomes the one, universal mind. Cayce described the guardian angel as that part of us that hasn’t forgotten our oneness with God and knows of no separation from God. The guardian angel thus has no free will of its own, but serves only the will of God.      We experience our guardian angel through intuition and not free will. The guardian angel part of ourselves is one of the images we can have for the term, “our higher self.” Dreams are a nightly channel of the higher self.
Channeling Dreams into Action, Pages 70–71		What Reed calls Cayce’s Law: “In the application comes the awareness.” To understand something, act on what you know, and through that experience, you’ll gain real understanding.      Cayce’s method for interpreting dreams: First, have a purpose for dreaming and write it down. Second, when you recall a dream, write it down. Third, find something in the dream—anything—that you think could be a clue relative to your purpose for dreaming. Fourth, think of some way to test the validity of that clue, or your understanding of it, by some practical application. Then do something constructive about it. Write down the results of your experiment and compare them against your own standards.
*Chapter 4, The Creative Channel of the Mind: What We Think We Become* Ideas: Channels of Material Reality, Pages 78–81		Cayce was fond of quoting Proverbs (27:3): “As a man thinketh, so is he.” What we think, we become ourselves or experience in our lives. The life we live, the possessions around us, the circumstances of our lives, all the details of our lives, are expressions of our being channels. The patterns we hold in our minds channel the life energy into physical expression. Ideas are real in themselves and become real in the physical world.      Cayce would have us understand that ideas exist in another dimension, which exists outside of space and time. We tune into ideas. As we tune into an idea, it begins to shape our experience. Every moment in our lives we’re acting as channels of energy, shaping events through the ideas we hold.      Ideas don’t belong to us, but exist within the universal mind. We can’t assume responsibility for the ideas themselves, or their consequences. Instead, our role is to choose which ideas or patterns we will hold within our mind. It’s more accurate to say that our choices determine which ideas will create our reality. We’re responsible for our choices.
The Ideal of the Christ Consciousness, Pages 83–85		Cayce would say that the ideal choice of an ideal is the Christ Consciousness.      Cayce often defined sin as “self,” meaning the focus on our separateness rather than on our oneness. Sin creates its own punishment. The focus on separateness creates fear. Fear creates defensiveness. Defensiveness builds further separation.      If you feel lonely, forget yourself and reach out to someone in love. That is the spirit of the Christ Consciousness.
*Chapter 5, Meditation: Channel of the Spirit* The Higher Consciousness Within Is Not Above You, Page 101		Some people meditate by focusing on a point above their head. We should focus within ourselves. Cayce advises us to raise the level of consciousness to that within self, and God meets us there.
Meditation on an Ideal, Pages 105–106		During meditation, a person becomes a channel that is receptive to the energy of many invisible influences. Other minds, including those of the dead, have easier access to us when we meditate. Unlike in sleep and in the dream state, when we automatically have protection, we don’t have automatic protection in meditation, so we should not let go of our defenses. Some surround themselves with white light to express their intention for meditation. Focusing on an ideal in meditation is like tuning your mind to that particular channel. We’re focusing the energy of creation and shaping its influence on us. Spiritual energy changes to physical intelligence.
Meditation and the Book of Revelation, Pages 107–108		The endocrine system operates to change patterns of psychic and mental energy into physical patterns within the body, and vice-versa. It’s in the endocrine system, not the brain, that mind and body merge.      The Christian concept of the Holy Spirit, symbolized by the dove, is the Western equivalent to Kundalini.
*Chapter 7, Artistic Channels of Creativity* The Temple Beautiful, Page 137		Cayce indicated that of all sensory effects, odor has the most powerful influence on the body.
Participate in the Arts in the Spirit of Play, Pages 144–145		Voice is the highest vibration we can achieve in the physical body.      Cayce suggests adding silent humming to your daily chores and activities to aid and guide you during the day. It also grooms your mood and helps the work along.
*Chapter 8, The Visionary Channel of the Imagination* The Boy Who Saw True, Page 160		Cayce often remarked that people don’t become any smarter after they die, except to discover that there is life after death.
*Chapter 9, The Voice of Angels: Who Speaks During Trance Channeling* The Darker Side of Channeling: Whatever Possessed Me, Page 206		Cayce indicates that evil isn’t a separate force—all force is the one energy of God—but that it’s a pattern of use of that one force for personal indulgence at the expense of the whole, a willful and knowing rebellion against God’s will. It’s a powerful transpersonal pattern, existing both within and beyond the individual personality.
*Chapter 11, Using Hypnosis for Trance Channeling* The Suggestibility of the Subconscious During Hypnosis, Page 231		Cayce explained that the essence of hypnosis is communicating directly with the subconscious mind.
Hypnosis and ESP, Page 234		If hypnosis is a means of communicating with the subconscious mind, we should expect that ESP would be more pronounced during hypnosis than during the normal, waking state. Hypnotic subjects should be mind readers. Experience and research proves this assumption correct.
*Chapter 13, Being a Channel of Healing* The Secret of the Green Thumb, Page 277		Cayce was a believer in the power of our thoughts and feelings on plants. Besides watering, fertilizing, and other care, plants need our love. In one of his psychic readings, he pointed out that vegetables grown by a grouchy gardener are hard on our digestion.
Awakening the Atomic Power of Healing Forces, Page 284		When we meditate, the ideal we focus on shapes our awareness. This altering of our consciousness filters down to every cell in the body and to every atom. Cayce explained that to become a channel of healing, it is important to set as the ideal the Christ Consciousness, or as Jesus said, “The father and I are One.”
The Little Things That Count, Pages 291–292		To Cayce, a smile was as valuable as a prayer. Lending a hand, reaching out to touch someone, giving a hug—all these little acts are as valuable as the laying on of hands in a formal healing service. Listening can make a big difference.      To become a channel of healing, it’s important that we understand that it isn’t for us to fix or rescue people. That’s judging them. We need to keep our thoughts positive, as they aren’t private, and affect those around us. Thinking kindly of others is as important as acting in kindness.      Focus your attention on the process, have faith in the process, and leave the results to God.
*Chapter 14, Being Yourself: The Ultimate Form of Channeling* Serving an Ideal Opens the Channel, Pages 298–299		The greater and more genuine the need for insights, the better the channel opens, and the better the psychic functioning. Your talents express themselves best when you’re using them to make some kind of gift for someone else.      What qualities we wish to have for ourselves, we need to give to others. By becoming a channel of blessings, we ourselves are blessed.