Soul & Spirit. Edgar Cayce
finds expression in all that is everlasting in the consciousness of mind or matter.
Reading 900-16
(Q) Explain the various planes of eternity, in their order of development, or rather explain to us the steps through which the soul must pass to climb back into the arms of beloved God.
(A) These, we see, must be manifest only as the finite mind in the flesh. As in the spirit forces, the development comes through the many changes, as made manifest in the evolution of man.
In the development in eternity’s realm, is that a finite force as made of creation may become one with the Creator, as a unit, atom, or vibration, becomes one with the universal forces. When separated, as each were in the beginning, with the many changes possible in the material forces, the development then comes, that each spirit entity, each earth entity, the counterpart of the spirit entity, may become one with the Creator, even as the ensample to man’s development through flesh, made perfect in every manner; though taking on flesh, yet without spot or blemish, never condemning, never finding fault, never bringing accusation against any, making the will one with the Father, as was in the beginning. For, without passing through each and every stage of development, there is not the correct vibration to become one with the Creator, beginning with the first vibration, as is of the spirit quickened with the flesh, and made manifest in material world (earth’s plane).
Then, in the many stages of development, throughout the universal, or in the great system of the universal forces, and each stage of development made manifest through flesh, which is the testing portion of the universal vibration. In this manner then, and for this reason, all made manifest in flesh, and development, through the eons of time, space, and called eternity.
(Q) What is this spirit entity in the body, [900], and how may he develop it in the right direction?
(A) This is only the portion that develops other than in the earth’s plane. Spirit entity. For soul’s development is in the earth’s plane. The spirit entity is in the spirit plane.
(Q) Does the spirit entity have a separate consciousness apart from the physical, and is it as the consciousness of [900] when he dreams, or has visions, while asleep?
(A) The spirit entity is a thing apart from any earthly connection in sleep, yet connected. For the earthly or material consciousness is ever tempered with material conditions; the superconsciousness with the consciousness between soul and spirit, and partakes of the spiritual forces principally. In consciousness we find only projections of subconscious and superconscious, which conditions project themselves in dreams, visions, unless entered into the superconscious forces. In the consciousness of earthly or material forces there enters all the attributes of the physical, fleshly body. In the subconscious there enters the attributes of soul forces, and of the conscious forces. In the superconscious there enters the subconscious forces, and spiritual discernment and development.
Reading 900-24
(Q) Have the lower forms of creation, such as animals, any life in the spirit plane?
(A) All have the spirit force.
A Well-Balanced Ideal
Reading 4866-2
What it [the self] would work toward must have a great deal to do with what may be called an entirely successful operation, an entirely successful development for the body; for what the body sets as its ideal, whether that which is wholly of the material or that which is a well-balanced spiritual, mental and material condition, will be those developments; for the activity—whether of wholly material conditions, mental conditions, or of spiritual conditions—is the spirit with which an entity, a body, goes about its activity. If the life is to become wholly mechanical, or wholly material minded, then only the material will be the natural result, and this will not bring contentment—nor will it satisfy. If the ideal will be set as a well-balanced self, knowing that the spirit, the life—that is, the spirit is the life, the mental attitude is the development or the builder—then the results will be in that comparison as to the activity that is given in respect to these attitudes.
Seat of the Soul and Spirit in the Body
Reading 4595-1
The sympathetic forces [are] the seat of all of the soul and spirit forces [in the physical body].
Editor’s Note: The sympathetic nervous system includes the seven endocrine glands, which other Cayce readings identify as the physical portions of the seven chakras.
The Spirit and Soul Are Naturally Psychic
Reading 3744-2
(Q) Please give a definition of psychic phenomena.
(A) Psychic means of the Spirit or Soul, for cooperation of the Phenomena, or manifestation of the workings of those forces within the individual, or through the individual, from whom such phenomena, or of such phases of the working of the spirit and soul, to bring the actions of these to the physical plane, Phenomena meaning only the act itself, brought to the attention, or manifested in such a way as to bring the attention of an individual to the work itself.
Psychic in the broader sense meaning spirit, soul, or the imagination of the mind, when attuned to the various phases of either of these two portions of the entity of an individual, or from the entity of others who are passed into the other planes than the physical or material; yet in the broader sense, the Phenomena of Psychic forces is as material as the forces that become visible to the material or physical plane.
Psychic forces cover many various conditions, depending upon the development of the individual, or how far distant the entity is from the plane of spirit and soul forces.
Psychic means not understood from the physical, or material, or conscious mind.
Psychic means that of the mind presenting the soul and the spirit entity as manifested in the individual mind. Then taking the phases of that force, we find all Psychic Phenomena or force, presented through one of the acknowledged five senses of the physical or material body—these being used as the mode of manifesting to individuals. Hence we would have in the truest sense, psychic, meaning the expression to the material world of the latent, or hidden sense of the soul and spirit forces, whether manifested from behind, or in and through the material plane.
The Difference Between Soul Forces and Spirit
Reading 900-17
(Q) It has been given that the soul is the spiritual force that animates or gives life to the body. What is spirit? What is spiritual force? Is it corporeal or incorporeal? Where may we find the soul force in the body—in the brain, nerve centers or where?
(A) There is a vast deal of difference between spiritual and soul forces, for, as given, each force there has been set guards or bounds. Spirit forces are the animation of all life giving life-producing forces in animate or inanimate forces. Spiritual elements become corporeal when we speak of the spiritual body in a spiritual entity; then composed of spirit, soul and the superconsciousness.
In the soul forces, and its dwelling in man, we find the animation, the spiritual element, the soul that developing element, and contained in the brain, in the nerve, in the centers of the whole system. As to the specific centers, nearer those centers of the sensory system, physically speaking.
In the conditions, then, we find when soul and spirit take flight