Why Edgar Cayce Sometimes Advised Against Deep Meditation

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Edgar Cayce consistently encouraged meditation and regarded it as an important pathway to spiritual growth and communion with God. However, he cautioned against deep or forceful meditation when the body, nervous system, or glandular system was out of balance. His concern was not meditation itself, but the risk of stimulating spiritual and psychic forces before the body was physically prepared to receive and properly direct them.

Cayce taught that the body, mind, and spirit are connected. If the body is weak or out of balance, spiritual practices can place additional strain on the system. In Reading 2946-4, Cayce explained that there were physical hindrances preventing proper coordination between the body and spirit. He stated, "Don't have the deeper meditation, for it is as using spiritual forces in the wrong directions." Notice that he did not say meditation was wrong. Rather, he said that deeper meditation should be avoided until the physical corrections had been made. The spiritual forces were not the problem; the body's condition was the problem.

This principle is consistent with Scripture. Paul wrote, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16). Before attempting higher spiritual experiences, the temple itself must be cared for and brought into harmony. Cayce often emphasized that spiritual development should proceed through balance rather than force.

In Reading 2982-2, the individual asking the question suffered from many physical difficulties, including anemia, thyroid disturbances, digestive problems, liver congestion, and kidney weakness. When asked whether meditation was harmful, Cayce answered, "Harmful in the physical conditions of the body at present. Leave these off, as indicated, until there are better conditions in the body." Again, the important words are "at present." Cayce was not condemning meditation. He was saying that the body first needed healing before engaging in deeper practices.

The Bible teaches the same principle of wisdom and balance. Proverbs 4:7 says, "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom." Spiritual growth is not achieved by rushing ahead but by following divine wisdom. Sometimes wisdom means waiting until the proper time.

Reading 2982-3 provides another example. The individual asked, "Is it safe now for me to resume my meditations and levitation?" Cayce replied, "We would not begin as yet." He explained that there was an "incoordination between sympathetic and cerebrospinal nervous systems." The body's nerve forces were not properly coordinated. Yet Cayce immediately added, "Not that there is not to be meditation but let these not be in the deep meditation as yet." This statement is very important. Cayce did not forbid meditation. He encouraged meditation but advised against deep meditation until the body was stronger and more balanced.

This reminds us of the biblical teaching that all things should be done "decently and in order" (1 Corinthians 14:40). Spiritual development is not meant to be chaotic or forced. God works through order, harmony, and gradual growth.

Perhaps the clearest example comes from Reading 1387-5. Here the individual was attempting to awaken psychic forces. Cayce stated that "the attempt to raise the kundaline causes an irritation." He then advised, "It would be best NOT to be too deep in meditation until the physical conditions show improvement." Cayce recognized that trying to force the awakening of spiritual energies could create problems when the body was not ready.

Throughout the readings, Cayce repeatedly warned against seeking psychic experiences merely for curiosity, power, or excitement. Instead, he encouraged people to seek God. He taught that spiritual growth comes through prayer, meditation, service, and living according to spiritual ideals. In Reading 281-13, he emphasized growth through "meditation, through prayer, through service." His focus was always on becoming a better channel for God's love rather than pursuing unusual experiences.

This agrees with Jesus' teaching: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness" (Matthew 6:33). The goal is not psychic power but spiritual transformation. When the heart seeks God first, the proper experiences come naturally and safely.

One of Cayce's most famous statements about meditation appears in Reading 262-52: "Prayer is speaking to God. Meditation is listening for the answer." Meditation was not something he discouraged. Rather, he saw it as a sacred way of listening to the Divine within. Yet even this listening must be approached with wisdom, balance, and preparation.

The overall message of these readings is clear. Edgar Cayce did not teach that deep meditation is dangerous for everyone. He taught that deep meditation should not be forced when there are serious physical, nervous, or psychic imbalances. He believed that body, mind, and spirit must work together in harmony. Once balance is restored, meditation can become one of the greatest tools for spiritual growth and communion with God.

As Scripture says, "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). Cayce would have agreed with this principle. Stillness is important, but it should be approached wisely, patiently, and with the desire to draw closer to God rather than to seek extraordinary experiences. True spiritual development comes not through force but through surrender, balance, faith, and daily cooperation with the Divine Spirit.

EDGAR CAYCE READING 2946-4

(Q) Sometimes in meditation the body becomes free of pain and the spine seems to adjust itself. Other times "nothing happens" - body seems cut off from spirit. Where is the fault?

(A) Haven't we just given that all of the connections are to be established between the physical consciousness and the spiritual? The connections between spirit, mind and body are through the emunctory and the lymph flow in the body-force itself. It is at these places where there are physical hindrances that prevent a unified or coordinant activity when there is the attuning of the body. Of course, by sinking deeper into meditation there might be aroused for the body, through the Leydig center, that which might flow out through the body - but we wouldn't advise it until corrections are made. Don't have the deeper meditation, for it is as using spiritual forces in the wrong directions.

EDGAR CAYCE READING 2982-2

As indicated, disturbances exist between heart, lungs, liver and kidneys. These are not the sources of the disturbance, but these are the organs being affected in the present. These are unbalanced conditions. Thus we have some irregularity at times to the heart's activity. Again we have an upsetting of the digestive system, so that - through the duodenum and the jejunum - there are those inclinations for foods not to be properly digested. There is a lacking in the chemical balance of the system. This produces a form or type of anemia. This upsetting also causes the disturbance at times to the kidneys, when there are those inabilities of the kidneys to have proper eliminations, owing to the disturbance in the liver circulation from chemical reactions in the body. Thus a drain on the thyroids, causing the adrenals to be a disorder. Thus the conditions of puffiness under eyes, at times the feeling of a disturbed condition in the joints of fingers, in the limbs, even in the veins along portions of the superficial circulation.

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(Q) Is the meditation I do harmful to my physical body?

(A) Harmful in the physical conditions of the body at present. Leave these off, as indicated, until there are better conditions in the body.

EDGAR CAYCE READING 2982-3

(Q) Please give the cause and cure of the occasional soreness of the thoracic vertebraes, also the sharp pain under right shoulder blade.

(A) These come from, as has been indicated, the incoordination between sympathetic and cerebrospinal nervous systems. These arise where, in many of the vertebrae, there are the closer connections between the impulses which arise from sympathetic nerve forces and those through which the cerebrospinal or lungs, heart, liver and kidneys, also add their impulses as well as being impressed, controlled, directed by impulses coordinant or incoordinant. And when there are any great strains on the body, mentally, physically, or when there is undue excitement, these centers or vertebraes receiving such an impulse cause those irritations in the areas indicated.

These need relaxing and a better coordination established, as we would find will be well by building up general health or activity of the organs of the central nervous system and coordinating through the hydrotherapy treatments that should be taken occasionally, once or twice a month until there is the better or more perfect relationships established between the nerves of the body centers.

(Q) Give cause and treatment of uterine discharge.

(A) These, as a treatments, would be the douches with alternating once a week the use of Atomidine and Glyco-Thymoline. We would begin with Atomidine and the quantity would be a teaspoonful to a quart and a half of water but have the water body temperature. The next week use Glyco-Thymoline, one tablespoonful to a quart of water; though of course, these are not to be taken through the periods. These, as we find, will allay and with the corrective measures may, in the centers from which there are impulses of circulations for both blood and nerve, remove these disturbances, which arise from a congestion produced by irritation. The body is not sterile.

...

(Q) Is it safe now for me to resume my meditations and levitation?

(A) We would not begin as yet. Let's wait until at least August or September for bettered conditions and these will be then much better for the body. Not that there is not to be meditation but let these not be in the deep meditation as yet, as to put greater strain on the area where the condition are not yet coordinant.

EDGAR CAYCE READING 1387-5

(Q) It has been suggested that my illness is partially psychic, a sort of semi-obsession idea. Is there any basis for this belief?

(A) As we find, it is rather a physical condition, though the psychic - or the attempt to raise the kundaline - causes an irritation. It would be best NOT to be too deep in meditation until the physical conditions show improvement.