Reading 531-4

TEXT OF READING 531-4 M 41

Text

Date: 1/3/1935 Sex: M Age: 41 ReadingID: 3701

This psychic reading given by Edgar Cayce at his home on Arctic Crescent, Virginia Beach, Va., this 3rd day of January, 1935, in accordance with request made by the self - Mr. [531], Active Member of the Ass”n for Research & Enlightenment, Inc.

[Edgar Cayce; Gertrude Cayce, Conductor; Gladys Davis, Steno. Mildred Davis and L. B. Cayce.]

Time of Reading … St., 11:00 to 11:25 A. M. Eastern Standard Time. Philadelphia, Pa. (Body and enquiring mind, who seeks information, advice and guidance, as to his better physical, mental and material welfare. Questions.)

1. EC: Yes, we have the enquiring mind, [531].

2. In the body-forces [See 531-2], from these mental attitudes, we find that - owing to the disturbances in the glands - small quantities of the Atomidine would be the most helpful, rather than potassiums. The potassiums, as we find, are not as helpful as the iodines. And in this form and manner (as in the Atomidine), the dosage would be one minim in a glass of water before breakfast and before retiring at night; one minim twice each day, you see, for periods of four or five days at a time, then leave off for an equal period, then take again.

3. Also we find it would be most beneficial to the general health to have the general massage and corrections from the thorough osteopathic manipulations, once or twice a week - or two or three times each month.

4. As to the material relationships, we have indicated for this body that the fruits of the earth and their preparations for the fellow man would be the channels through which the greater advancements may be had in this present experience.

5. As we find, there are being made those associations with the organization whereby the body - or the entity - may become more and more the GENERAL representative of the organization in a wider territory than that indicated in the present. While this would necessitate an expansion of the body’s activities, it would bring those returns that will be - from the remunerative standpoint and from the monetary point of view - more satisfactory.

6. Also we find that the larger or more exclusive clubs may be used, where the fruits of the vine may be disposed of - that are of the entity’s or body’s own associations. Not as a GENERAL way, you see, but EXCLUSIVE orders. Such as the Racquet Club, the Boot and Spur Club, or the more exclusive of such natures. These would be the channels that would be made helpful.

7. As well as an association with or distributing of the particular brand of the vine or tree - the preservings of one in the full South, that may be helpful in making greater associations for the body, see?

8. Also the Tea Biscuit; not as commodities to interfere with the particular activity - but those that would become exclusive for the more EXCLUSIVE organizations through which the body would act.

9. These two associations (for the preserves and the tea biscuits) we would make; which, as we find, would be with two ladies - widows. Merritt - Pharr. [Mrs. Mary B. Merritt, Montgomery, Ala. Mrs. King Pharr, Catherine, Ala.]

10. (Q) Define attribute of health and give guidance. (A) As indicated, there is the lack of proper activity or impulse for activity of the glands in system - and the using of the energies through this lack of activity. And it has been indicated as to what to do.

11. (Q) Could I land the big job with the Biscuit people? Is such an association possible? (A) To become, as indicated, a greater field representative - or to include a much larger territory; requiring the associations of an organization, in a measure, of the body.

12. (Q) Or must I continue in my own business? (A) This has been given. The channels as outlined, we find, would work for most satisfactory arrangements.

13. (Q) Please suggest what to do or not to do regarding Biscuit account. (A) As indicated, carry on.

14. (Q) How can I go about getting other products and agencies in order to increase my income during this year? (A) By making associations with the two agencies indicated, specifically: Preserves from Pharr; Tea Biscuits from Merritt. These with the liqueurs in the specific clubs mentioned, or those TYPES of organizations - in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Newark; in all of these EXCLUSIVE clubs.

15. (Q) With what definite countries should I deal, and with which not deal? (A) As indicated, those which the body represents - or the Latin-American, or the Spanish or Cuban and American.

It would be very well for the body to consider, at this specific time, the representing of those very same properties that are to be taken internally for self - that is, the Atomidine; the distributing of same from America for the entity’s OWN countries - or in Cuba, Domingo, Porta Rico, the Isthmus, and the portions of these countries with which the entity would be associated, see?

16. (Q) Regarding my wife and baby, [1228] where shall I go to get insurance that will protect them when I am gone - what type of insurance shall this be? (A) With the Mutual of Philadelphia. [Penn Mutual Life Ins. Co.?] And it should be the type that makes a specific amount for certain periods, or for ten to fifteen years, and then a specific amount for the rest of the life.

17. (Q) What are my outlooks or promises for 1935? (A) In these directions as indicated, most hopeful.

18. (Q) Are my connections well and good now, and my plans in accord with psychic laws or suggestions. (A) We have outlined the plans. The connections here may be used for the furthering of these, as we find, and be in accord with all of the laws - as related to the mental, the material and, naturally, the physical developments.

Do those.

19. (Q) Do my associates appreciate my services and the results obtained? (A) If they didn’t, there wouldn’t be the possibility of expanding the activities! This should answer for itself!

20. (Q) In trying to develop a psychic power, am I to feel that “the mind” dictates to the “soul-spirit” or does the “spirit” or “emotion” dictate to the mind? (A) This depends upon the approach the individual makes to same. The MIND is both of the soul and of the material things. When one enters into the holy of holies, or within self, with the surrounding of self with the spirit of truth - according to the promises made by Him who is to be propitiation for the activities and the associations with divine love in the material manifestations, then the spirit of TRUTH directs as the MIND HOLDS same to that channel, see? To clarify this, let’s give an example: A body-mind, through its own self, raises in the mental power that which is for the satisfying of the desires of the flesh, that may find their manifestations in power, in fame, in fortune, in the place of this, that or the other seen before men. This is applying the mind in the EARTHLY realm, see? Then there may be the applying of the mind, HOLDING to that attitude of “Lord, use me as THOU seest fit,” you see; seeking only for the material manifestations which may HOLD that in perfect accord with what may be manifested through physical or material activities of the individual. Then the psychic forces are from those meetings within, in not the aggrandizement of self or self’s attributes towards the material of the physical standards, but towards that which is to be the activity of the spirit of truth in Him.

21. We are through for the present.

Copy to Self ” ” Ass’n file

[Mrs. Mary B. Merritt, Merritt’s Beaten Biscuit Company, 816 Mt. Meigs Road, Montgomery, Alabama.

Mrs. King Pharr (runs canning and preserving factory), Catherine, Alabama.

Dr. S. A. Bisey (Hindese Scientist), British Atomidine Company, 64 Sydney Ave., Mount Vernon, N.Y. (Booklet was enclosed).

Mr. Cayce knows all these individuals personally, and will no doubt write you more in detail about them. GD.]

Reports

Reports & Follow-up

R1. 1/4/35 Letter to Mr. [531] from EC:

Dear [531]:-

You know I didn’t wish to impose a reading on you, but you intimated from time to time that we might answer this or that question for you. And it had been practically impossible for us to get any reading. As you know, we can only take two a day, and it is necessary to make a definite appointment. That’s why I suggested we try to get this for you, if in keeping with your wishes. I’m sure you understand, [531], that it isn’t possible to ask questions about a lot of different individuals in one person’s reading; unless we give check-physical readings on each one, which necessitates the individual having had a first physical reading before.

Now, as to the reading itself, I will leave that to you to work out in the way that you see fit. I’m sure there are many things that you would like to ask questions about, and yet I don’t know just which ones.

I know the two ladies referred to. One I haven’t seen in several years - Mrs. Pharr of Catherine, Ala., and I do not even know whether she still conducts a business of the kind now or not. She did have a very large canning business [King Pharr], making a specialty of fig preserves. Her husband during his lifetime was known as the okra king of the world. [7/27/34 EC wrote to Mr. [531]: “King Pharr taught some of the candy companies to use the young okra in the place of some of the ingredients necessary to be used in fine candies, using it in place of glucose, and the okra substitute is much more helpful and keeps candy much softer, and all those things.”] But their business started from the efforts of Mrs. Pharr herself. This line might be something worth while. I really don’t know whether it is in operation now or not. Mrs. Merritt I met about a year ago. She has a little business in Montgomery that apparently (from the readings) might be not only advantageous to yourself but to her, if connections are made in certain circles. I understand this is presented as being rather a specialty product, and in special fields of activity. Just how this will appeal to you, or if at all or not, I don’t know. Of course, I understand that if it isn’t practical it doesn’t mean very much.

I’m still looking forward to meeting and talking with you in person. We couldn’t get your station over the radio that night. We hoped that you would come by this way.

As for the Atomidine suggested in your reading for you to take, we have had quite a bit of contact with this particular product. It is made by an East Indian. [Dr. Sunker A. Bisey] The readings have been suggesting it for years, and possibly have in a small way spread it considerably over the country. It is something that has been especially made for countries where there are certain types of fever. And it might not be a bad thing for you to represent this in the countries suggested, if it hasn’t already been distributed there - which I don’t think it has. Should this appeal to you in any way, I would like to give you a letter to the man who owns the formula and who is handling it, for I’m very well acquainted with him. This, of course, depends upon whether it appeals to you in that way or not.

Let us hear from you. I haven’t heard from Miss Pratt yet regarding the papers that I sent on. I’m sure she has been quite busy. With kindest regards, Wishing for you and yours a very Prosperous New Year, I am

Sincerely, EC:GD

R2. 1/5/35 Letter from Mr. [531] to EC:

Thanks for reading -

That was nice of you. I am writing to Mrs. Pharr and to Mrs. Merrittt, [5/12/66 GD’s note: Recently in our local supermarket I saw the products of Mrs. Pharr and Mrs. Merritt. Apparently they “caught on” and are now well distributed.] and I hope something can be done for them. Have also bought the medicine and written to the laboratories. I am going to follow these things to a T.

Now as to insurance, I have addressed Mutual Life Insurance Co. of N.Y. In the telephone book we find, Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Co., of Newark, Mutual Insurance Co. of Baltimore, and assume the one I picked - which you termed Mutual - in your reading is the one I should take, if not, let me know, as it seems to me there is also a Philadelphia Mutual Aid Society, and a Philadelphia Mutual Aid Society U.S.

After writing this I am looking on telephone book and find Penn Mutual Life insurance Co. and I am re-addressing the letter to Mutual Life Insurance, and sending it to the latter, as it seems to me, this is one you want me to contact.

Cordially, [531]

Eve. Jan. 5th at home Place attached to my account. Thanks.

R3. 1/6/35 He requested 791-1 for his cousin.

R4. 1/11/35 He verified, etc.

R5. 1/12/35 Letter from Mr. [531] to EC:

Dear Cayce:

When you are through with [791]‘s reading send it to me, and I’ll send it to her with comments.

Last night I read “meditation” [See in SFG I and SFG II] and there is some good data on this book. I shall read it again and will experiment. Now, how is it possible for you, for instance, to come into the soul of another person, and how would I experience this. Suppose, Cayce that I were to be able to develop a state of mind or a situation equal to yours, and that you would also develop the similar situation or state of meditation - there would be an interconnection of soul, and will they BLEND and if they did, don’t you think then that a most potential factor has come to take place? If so, just think what it would mean.

I am going to try and develop that physic force, and will want some example of what I shall experience, while entering into the state. But, I am puzzled at this - we go to sleep, and sleep, then some unforeseen force awaken us - what must I do to awaken, to speak, to write to foresee, when I enter into a state of meditation and how will I know I am in such state, and further, how can I show my wife, for instance that I am in that state?

I admit it is difficult for you to tell your experience, what it really is, but that you know it is something of that there is no doubt, and I as the seeker, or the curious expectator, like to feel and see and experience, as I can do it, and I can do what any man can, if I can create sufficient power and intelligence to do it - see?

Sometimes I wonder, and say Cayce will pass away, and then what? Who is next - if there no next, will there be a lasting vibration or a impression, that will perpetrate or carry through? You see, Cayce I feel that Jesus Christ was a man who could enter into the depth of other men and leave an impression, would I say a hypnotist, no - this matter of words doesn’t matter - but he left his vibration with such lasting qualities that his doctrines and ideals were gathered and used by men to the extent that they were used and will be used continuously - but, at that does the soul of Jesus still live, does it persist? Someday, some one man will die, and at the point of death, he may have the fraction of a second of a thought to carry him through, so that he will LIVE even if the material is dead, and he will then live and show that there is continuous life, be it named spiritually or what not, but continuity - why not - life in itself says “existence, to keep on going” and death is merely a state of disintegration of the soul, the spirit from the body - but by gosh where is that spirit, if it is possible to use that spirit during life and reach the doors of my makers, then show me how it is done, and when I feel this, I will know, how to proceed to further, to forge ahead and accomplish more. You seem to have been through the mills, and sometime I say, I wish I was in his hide and experience these things.

Pardon the outburst. Cordially [531]

P.S. I am a God in the making - not GOD but a god, a wisdom, a power, a formidable power, but, I am in the making, I am nothing, but if I can develop intelligence to be that power I will be the power, and nothing can prevent me, as nothing can prevent me from being a good salesman, from even impressing a letter, and without seeing the other man, make HIM think my way, all of which is possible if guided by the spirit of TRUTH, but, if I don’t develop my intellect to be a good salesman, I never will be a good salesman it is just the same - I make all these deductions, as I watched my baby girl a few nights ago - there was she sucking on that bottle - I never taught her how to do it, yet her instinct of conservation tells her that she must have food, and that she must suck that bottle, and if that baby, had its mind power developed, through experience, that baby, being such would not suck but drink as you and I. So there must be an almighty power that has made that baby have that instinct to suck, but, possible not to be able to know what it is doing - why - I don’t know. And why don’t I know? Because I am not intelligent enough to ascertain the facts, the reason, but, I can ascertain and will if I know what I want, want it bad enough and find the way to know it.

Hard boil, this [531], eh?

R6. 1/14/35 EC’s letter:

Dear [531]: I’m just in receipt of yours of the 11th and 12th. We haven’t as yet had a report from your cousin in Tampa, but have the appointment for tomorrow - and with this information from you I presume we will be able to get what is necessary. I appreciate very much your confidence in me, and I certainly hope I may be able to justify that from time to time. You know we are only too glad to try and be of a service. We will mail the copy to you, and you’ll be able to send it on with whatever comment you have to make.

From your letter I notice you have been reading over our paper on “Meditation”. You may have the idea exactly, [531], or you may have the idea and didn’t express it just in the same manner that I would. It isn’t that one soul enters with another, but rather as two individuals that would have the same mind, same reaction in their minds as to how anything was to be accomplished. While each might go about it just a little differently, their purpose and approach would be with the single idea or ideal in view. Or if their approaches were identical, as the communion of one soul or spirit with another in meditation, then there would be a union of purpose and they would be in contact as minds would in a material application of such an experience. Not that there would be an inter-connection or a blending other than in singleness of purpose.

But as there is in an electrical current, for instance; connected properly there may be the “stepping up” of the current by the various apparatus used for such things. If they are in opposition, or not properly connected, they take one from the other and reduce the voltage rather than raising it. This might explain just how it would “step up” the possibilities; and, of course, it is a very wonderful thing when we realize just how much force or power we may manifest at such a time. Yet we realize, as with electricity, we have to know how to use it. It’s a dangerous thing not used properly; quite a constructive thing and worth while if we know just how to apply it.

SURE, every individual has psychic force or power. What do we mean by psychic force, then, you ask? Or you no doubt understand. It is that force with which the ENTITY demonstrates the CONTINUITY of life, or the soul, and the soul’s activity upon the mind. Or, as someone has put it, it is as this:

In our physical bodies we find that there are nerve centers running from every portion to the central nervous system - the brain. It is this central nervous system with which we PHYSICALLY make material manifestations. But MIND itself, or that portion of the soul mind with which we contemplate things, may work independently of the body. Just as, having been in a place we can imagine or visualize ourselves in that place again - without physically going to it. The mind goes, and with the memory it has can recall it to consciousness. It isn’t the conscious mind that recalls. It’s the conscious mind that made the record of the memory upon the soul mind. Do you see what I mean?

Yes, it’s a difficult thing for us to have an experience and explain it to others in a way they can grasp what it really was. We each have to experience it individually. The soul mind is the lasting vibration, or that which enables us to have memory - if we want to put it into concrete form.

The Christ IS that force or power which gave man the power to become conscious in a material world of his ability to choose. Consequently, that we know as the Christ is a continual flow. If we enjoin ourselves to the Christ Consciousness then we are “stepped up” to that greater force or power within ourselves. If we are in conflict with that which is His divine law, the law doesn’t stop working but to us it becomes of none effect. And He allows the blessings to come on the just and the unjust alike, save as to the ability of the individual to COMPREHEND and know for what purpose his individual activity is being directed. But He still lives, He IS time and space, He IS the creator of the world and all therein. Or, as given in the first chapter of John, In Him the world was made or the world came into being. He came into the world in the material form that, being of the world, He might KNOW the needs of man all the more; being tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. As a MAN He suffered physically - physical pain. As the DIVINE He lives on, with the ability - having overcome death in the material plane - to give us life more abundantly.

The ability that we as individuals have at times to get a “flash” of this or that experience which makes us conscious of the continuity of life, is that which if allowed to act upon us may make us aware of the influence of the forces without with the forces within. Death in the material plane is only a disintegration of the body; NOT of the mind or of the soul. The soul does NOT die, save that which separates itself from God by the indulgencies in only those things that are contrary to God’s divine laws. Since Christ came into flesh, in flesh we may not wholly be bad; we may sometimes be very, very bad, but there is that something which makes the soul dear to someone else. Evil can only express itself in material consciousness. That’s the only way we know evil, by comparing it with that which is good. It cannot wholly express itself in flesh.

Yes, I suppose I have been “through the mills.” I’m still going through them, but God being my judge and my helper, I hope to use whatever good there may be within me - consciously or unconsciously - for the glory of God and to the good of my fellow man. We are gods in the making. You see, [531], the soul - not the body - is that image of God which is eternal. No man has ever seen God. Consequently no man - as man - has ever seen a soul, because that would be seeing God. When we see the good we see the manifestations of God, or of a soul. And if we see the evil we see the manifestations of the Evil One. We don’t see the devil. We only see that which he manifests to us.

The deductions from watching your baby are very good. When God allowed the spirit to become manifest in flesh with a soul, He also gave with it a way of escape from all the evil influences. Consequently we have those natural attributes such as indicated by the child in obtaining its food. It didn’t develop that, no more than a seed - which has been given the spirit, the germ of life; when it is put in the proper soil, it does not have to be shown how to grow - for that IS God itself! That’s the nearest we can come to seeing Him; that which IS self-preservation in the activity of what we look on as a helpless baby. It is the heritage of man to recognize these things as being the influences of God manifesting to us and to the world, and to cultivate them in their proper sphere. That’s man’s job. For, “Inasmuch as ye do it unto the least of these (all these influences that manifest God), ye do it unto me.” That’s how the god-force in us grows. We do not know what God is until we have - in our own measure - been a god to something. We do not know what a savior is until we have been the savior of someone. Just as you did not know the experience of being a father until you had seen your own flesh and blood manifested in a material body. How or why, from this tiny seed - that is a portion of our bodies - there can grow into being that which contains a soul, a mind, a body, we can never know. We only see and experience it by watching it happen before our eyes day by day. They are miracles, yes. Or there are no miracles; for it is the NATURAL thing. It is the GIFT of God to EVERY soul to know, to be aware of, these things. To deny that they exist is to separate ourselves from God.

But I need not continue on in this vein. This is just merely to let you see what the trend of mind is with us.

I hope we may be of a service to your cousin.

Appreciating your interest, and the nice things you have said

• with kindest regards from all here, I am

Sincerely, Edgar Cayce [EC:GD]

R7. 1/17/35 My dear friend Cayce:

Now, don’t answer this letter, because after all, you are too good, to take your time and that of your steno, and among hundred others, or among your duties, etc., write me long, interesting letters. I read your letter and like to read what you say, your arguments, your expressions, and impulsively I take the typewriter begin to hit the keys, and here I am, again, banging, banging to you. So, as it is read this when you have time - don’t reply, it is not necessary. For that matter in some temperamental moment I could chat and chat with you - then be quiet, and all of a sudden burst in with a question. It seems, I am learning to know myself - a task, and a slow process. When I know myself, I will be turning myself inside out and the outside in and it will be again the constant bugaboo of beginning and end, and the circle of life, with beginning and with end, yet without beginning and without end.

As I write, it seems, some idea, some picture of that MAN which I see when I am under ether (and I have experienced this twice) comes to me and wants to either assist me, or just watches me. I guess, it must be a mental impression, of that man that appears powerful to me, as a very intelligent being that wants to be with me. You once said this was my angel - it may be my hidden guidance, that I am seeking - a light, a something or may be a nothing - yet I continue impulsively to express my ideas, what I experience, consciously, and I don’t know what it is. A puzzle eh? - but yet as you say you can know your own experiences and perhaps not be able to express it, that’s why I have faith in what you do because your ideals are in unison with mine.

At that, I may say - well, what’s the use? Yet if I could find an experience, if I could see what you see, and create a power, for once or twice to experience a rarity based on the examples you say must be followed in “meditation” then I would feel better - perhaps it would bring a change in my being, in my life, because, I would have seen. I need not the fear, and I want not fear, but I want light, some sublime experience, something that will guide me and tell me - here is the way, and that I may say - Eureka, I found it!

To night again I am reading meditation and if you have anything around there that will help me be LIKE YOU ARE or will help us commune, during my sleep or in some way or manner, that will bring me to a realization, gee whiskers, I would feel like a king! Then, something tell me, well - may be it is not your time, may be God doesn’t want you to experience, but then why does it impulse me to write and seek? There seems to be a fight of some kind. And I say fight, because in your letter you make me ask you this - How do you know Cayce, that the soul doesn’t die? If it doesn’t die, why then doesn’t express itself in some way or manner to enable me - MAN - to know that it is a reality, to believe? Washington crossed the Delaware - history says so and men attest to this, so I believe he did, but at that I didn’t see it, and all I know that as one of men physical actions or movements, some other man will convince me and prove it to me, and I will say yes, he crossed the Delaware, yet something in back of me, will say “you liar”. See the confusion here? You understand me, don’t you?

I cannot be convinced by faith, because faith may be an attribute of fear, and faith may make me believe that red is blue and blue is red, yet the director of my being goes ahead and injects into my conscious mind, such evil as to make me doubt my faith? Why? If the director, if the creator, if the unknown being is intelligent why doesn’t he make me be capable of reasoning with myself, or why does he use me as his tool or his play boy. Well, may be he has a reason - but gee whiskers, is it fair? That example of the seed, is okay with me - it seems life is an unknown beginning, and an undetermined end, yet we experience life, we know, we are living, and then I wonder how happy is the baby in the crib - does he know he is living, or is he just acting upon some impulse which like electricity doesn’t know what it is, itself, yet it is directed by some being, and that being, will have to invariably be directed by another being and the other being by another and on, and on, and on, and on.

We experience life as I say, and we don’t know what happened before we were born, nor what happened after we disintegrated

• why such confusion, why are we martyrs of the directorship of that guiding being, nature, God, the supreme artifice, the deity?

And if I am not reasoning or if I am puzzled, why don’t I see something while I am asking, while I am searching - may be I have to keep searching, and when death comes - then I may say to myself, within myself - I see, I found it, but then it will be too late, I wouldn’t be among man, in the world, and I will be in the puzzling unknown…

That’s why I should like to be able to do rare things, along the line you are doing, things that will enable me to see more, to be better, to help others, help myself and to be a being among my fellowmen, for their benefit and for my satisfaction. Why not? If my ego drives me to seek, to find, to look for what I don’t know, then it is guided by God, and he knows best.

That’s that. [531]

P.S. You don’t know yourself how you do certain things, but somehow you experience some things - in your dreams or trances - you come back, wake up and have accomplished something, and something that is of VALUE something that makes you be more and faithful, so my friend if you experience those things and I am a seeker of light, of knowledge, if I want to dig into the mysteries of the unknown, if I want to solve the puzzle, do you know of some way that I can come to that realization, and say - I did something - yet I don’t know how I did it. Then having done it once, PROVES that I can do it again and again and again.

P.S. No. 2 Another thought. There is always an interval in things, a time, a moment, the millionth part of a second, when things change - when we change from unknown being into life, when we change from life to death - there is a continuity and there has to be a time, within which time, that changes go into effect - sort of an in-between interval, short as it may be. Sometimes I wonder, if it is that “inbetween” interval GOD? So quick, so rapid, that he doesn’t permit men to know. Last time I was under gas, some few months ago, the doctor took me to the hospital at around 11 o’clock. They had to open two boils in my leg. I went under the ether, and began to dream with this man, who asked me to count, or rather he wanted to show me something. All I know is that when I got up, the first thing I said: “Oh, God that is impossible.” I was speaking to the man, to that which Called God, to that supreme being or perhaps to an imaginary impression of my mind, dormant at that time and affected by ether, yet I had a delightful experience, trying to count with God, 1929, 1928, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, fast, faster, until I came to 1934, and then I woke up - what happened between the time I ended counting and the short time when I woke up?

There was an interval, an obscure moment, the short moment of the winking of an eye but if that was a continuity, it was to me an unknown, a darkness, an undefined thing - yet I am thankful to God, that I returned, to know that I was living, that I didn’t continue in a dream which may have ended (or may have continued - this is problematic) even if I had disintegrated, and never had returned to earth to write you this type of letters and ask you these questions, that may make you think I am not all there, eh?

R8. 1/23/35 EC’s letter:

Dear [531]: I can’t help but say something about yours of the 17th. While you asked me not to answer your letter, still some of the things you speak of I feel I might able, in saying a word, to get you straight. It is true, you cannot wholly profit by my experience or anyone else’s experience, but it is true the knowledge of such experiences that, we may say, brings the awareness of such things being possible. Oftentimes, one may try to have an experience and by the very trying prevent it from coming about. Do you understand me? Very much in the same manner as trying to work an example in math. One will try and try, and then when they have quit trying, all of a sudden something happens and it is easy to work out. Or, as another illustration, one will try to recall a name or an address of some individual whom they know very well they should be able to remember, and they will finally quit trying, - and it is there.

The real activity, then, of an individual, is to keep themselves at all times as near as possible in attune with the Infinite, which means just doing and being those things that God has indicated to us in the attitude that we should remember in reference to our fellow man; for, until we see the God Spirit in our fellow man - even in those we feel dislike us, we will never be well enough in accord to receive a great deal of instructions from Him.

I am sure (I may have told you this before) you will not find anything that will work better than the information or data on meditation than the reading of the 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th chapters of St. John, and as you read them, don’t look on them as being history, nor as a mere phenomena; rather, as you experience the truth as is conveyed there is within your own self, hear the voice of the Master speaking. Know that it isn’t just to His followers that were about Him that he is speaking, but that He is speaking to [531] - now!

Now, as to FAITH - we have a real lesson, I think, on faith, [Lesson IV, SFG I] and I am supposed to try to teach a class tonight something about the lesson, “Faith”. Faith is an attribute, you know, of the soul. We don’t have faith in individuals. We have CONFIDENCE. Confidence, of course, may be an out-growth of knowledge. “Faith,” (not merely blind faith), as the writer has said, “is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.” Confidence may beget faith, or confidence may be broken down, for it is only confidence when fear enters in. We may doubt our own selves, or we may doubt our fellow man, and that is only our lack of confidence; but faith is of those things that we cannot see, yet we act as if they exist. To illustrate, we cannot see electricity; we know by experience that such things exist. Consequently, we prepare our houses, we put the wires in, we push the switch and the light comes on from some unseen power. The force or power that is electricity is the same force or power we call God, and there is ever such a current - either constructive or destructive, dependent upon how we use it.

Your experience in counting back is quite interesting. That has been one of the most unusual things that everyone has remarked about in the manner in which the Life Reading information is gotten. It begins with the present day and counts back. Just what is accomplished by this, we have not wholly determined, as yet. Once in a while we find times when it remarks on some particular change that came about in the individual’s life, and just whether that is what it is doing or not, I do not know. We use words, phrases and terms to express ourselves, but they so seldom convey just the meaning that we are trying to give.

With kindest personal regards and best wishes, I am

Ever the same, Edgar Cayce EC:MD

R9. 2/4/35 Mr. [531] sent money for cousin [791]‘s rdg., also his own acct.:

I am in correspondence with Mrs. Merritt but her crackers taste different - they are not always the same, and if she does what I tell her she can get somewhere. Did not hear from Mrs. Phar, not even acknowledgement, while I am corresponding with Mr. Bisey on his Atomidine. I am taking it and going to the Osteopath, I think we can place that Atomidine abroad. Just got a letter from Dominican Republic who are interested. Am busy. Haven’t heard from Dave Kahn for sometime and I often think of him - I like this fellow lots. Say - I forgot, almost. The other day I tried to get in contact with the infinite, and almost accomplished something that is if my experience was something. I visualized sort of a second sight picture - four faces were seen, in a light, and I got kind of scared, because it was something like between a dream and a visualization. Don’t know, but I’ll get there. May be am all wrong, but I’ll try hard enough.

So long.

R10. 3/24/35 See his Ck. Physical 531-5. This rdg. also gives advice as to his life and work.

Background

Background

B1. See 531-3 on 5/2/34 and subsequent Reports.

B2. 10/7/34 He submitted questions.

B3. 1/2/35 He wired questions.

Mentioned Entities

Soul, Meditation, Atomidine, Jesus Christ, Entity (Cayce Term), Dreams, Holy Spirit, Purpose, Air Shafts (Pyramid), Ideal, Search for God Study Groups, Vibration, Alabama, Book of Job, Glands (Esoteric), Initiation, John (Apostle), Miracles of Jesus, Osteopathy, Photography (Atlantean)

Source: The Complete Edgar Cayce Readings, A.R.E. CD-ROM (2006). Reading 531-4, ReadingID 3701.