The Cayce information insists that we are not simply physical bodies; instead, we are spiritual beings who are having a physical experience. Essentially, we are all seekers, seeking our true identity and our relationship to the Whole. From this premise, life is an ongoing adventure of purposeful experiences and relationships, enabling each individual to find the true self.
All too often, we have sought meaning in our lives through all manner of escape, acquisition, addiction, and confusion. The time must come in the history of the world when we finally realize that, throughout our sojourns through space and time, we have simply been seeking our connection to spirit, our connection to the Creative Forces, our connection to God. With that in mind, this book is an attempt to explore what constitutes spiritual growth as well as why a soul may lose ground in a particular incarnation. In the end, I hope that it might make some small contribution to our comprehension of the true nature of humankind and to our collective understanding that we are truly spiritual beings.
Kevin J. Todeschi
1During Cayce’s life, the Edgar Cayce readings were all numbered to provide confidentiality. The first set of numbers (e.g., “5749”) refers to the individual or group for whom the reading was given. The second set of numbers (e.g., “14”) refers to the number in the series from which the reading is taken. For example, 5749-14 identifies the reading as the fourteenth one given to the subject assigned number 5749.
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The Edgar Cayce Material and Spiritual Growth
Soul development should take precedence over all things.
3357-2
What if the purpose of life were not simply to be born into a family, go to school, get a job, acquire material goods, create a family of one’s own, grow older, and then eventually die, leaving one’s descendants and family members to repeat the very same cycle? What if one’s life experiences were not simply random chance; instead, some kind of divine purposefulness stood behind the possibilities of every single day for every single individual? What if we suddenly discovered we were somehow actively responsible for cocreating the substance of our lives? What if we came to realize that our perception of ourselves is extremely limited, for we are, in truth, eternal beings possessing infinitely more than an average of seven to ten decades of life? What if the answer to the question “Who am I?” were much more than we had ever even dared to imagine?
Perhaps more than anything else, humankind is in need of an entire worldview shift—a change in our collective perception that will enable all individuals to look at themselves and one another in a completely new light. This change in perception needs to amount to nothing less than a quantum leap in our understanding of what life is all about, for humanity’s previous worldview has been sorely inadequate. Life is not about acquisition. It is not about appeasing one’s desires and needs. It is not about lobbying to get one’s way. It is not about being victimized or bullying another. It is not about being afraid or causing fear. It is not about seeking pleasure or inflicting pain. It is not about taking control of another or being controlled oneself. It is not about proselytizing personal beliefs. It is not about problems with race or sex or war or governments or culture or territorial borders. Ultimately, it is not even about religion. Simply stated, life is a process of personal growth and development. It is a required transformational process that has been in effect since the dawn of time and will be underway until each soul has passed through every portion of the curriculum.
This change in our collective worldview is not only necessary, it is also inevitable. The reason is because the truth about who we are can no longer be contained within the confines of what we once thought about ourselves. With greater and greater frequency, this single fact has repeatedly led individuals from countless backgrounds, cultures, and faiths to sense and to predict “the end of the world.” Although it is true that the world as we know it is coming to a close, it is not that the world is literally ending; rather, it is that our perception of the world and ourselves is in the throes of a complete and radical transformation. When this shift has arrived, we will no longer think ourselves to be what we never really were.
During this time of transition, we stand at a crossroads, both individually and collectively. We can either fight against the inevitable, becoming all the more focused on our limiting and erroneous beliefs, or we can embrace the change and allow our perception of truth to expand along with us. When this change is complete, we will look back on our previous worldview and see it simply as a step in our collective learning process—a stage that we passed through rather than the reality where we ended up.
As it is now, our limited worldview suggests one of two fundamental possibilities about the nature of humankind for much of the world. The first is that life is accidental and random, implying that there is no God and that we are nothing more than physical bodies. The second is that there is a God and He is all-loving, but for reasons we may not understand, He is conditional in that love. He is also all-forgiving, but only within a certain period of time. Nor does He play favorites, unless one refuses to do things His way. Even now, certain logical assumptions suggest that neither of these possibilities is justifiably defensible.
The structure and harmony of the universe, the cyclic nature of all of life, and the universal laws we can perceive in action tend to indicate that the cosmos follows design more so than accident. In our own lives, the fact that we possess the capacity to dream, the ability to hope, and the capability to inspire others to go beyond their perceived limitations suggests that there is much more to us than a physical body.
In terms of the conflicting nature of God, does it not seem problematic that, if the purpose of life is simply to receive the same eternal reward or punishment, for some unknown reason the Creator has visited upon us very different tests? For some, that test may be like an easy math problem that requires only the ability to add and subtract, but for others that test is like a complex algebraic equation that only the most gifted in mathematical theory and computation could even begin to decipher. One person’s life may be filled with minor struggles and pain, while another’s seems fraught with tragedy, misfortune, and unspeakable horror. This limited worldview would have us believe that a Creator who designed the intricacies of the galaxies could send a child to a Mahatma Gandhi or a Reverend Billy Graham and hope for the same level of success as a child He sent to a Joseph Stalin or a Reverend Jim Jones. Does this really seem Godlike to anyone?
What if the apparent randomness of life weren’t random at all, but instead were a purposeful unfolding of experiences, thoughts, desires, and lessons that originated at the level of the soul? What if we were active participants in the creation of every element of our lives rather than simply the recipient of them? What if the Creator were at least as equitable and fair as a loving parent who didn’t play favorites with her or his children? What if God were truly all-loving, ever-merciful, and eternally supportive, providing a firm foundation for each of His children to live and grow and become all that they were meant to be?
These premises—that we stand at the brink of a new understanding of the nature of humankind and that there will be an inevitable shift in our worldview—are both explored in much of the work of Edgar Cayce, the father of holistic medicine and one of the foremost twentieth-century spokespersons for the transpersonal nature of humankind.
Over a period of forty-three years, Cayce gave intuitive readings to people from every religious background and all segments of society. During the course of those consultations, he was able to perceive how individuals literally create the structure of their lives through their thoughts, their deeds, and their interactions with others. Cayce called this storehouse of data that he was able to see “the akashic records”; others have referred to the same information as “the Book of Life” or “God’s Book of Remembrance.” It was this information that enabled Cayce to describe to individuals how their