This blog is part of our 2022 Enlightenment Course, an exclusive benefit for members of Edgar Cayce's A.R.E. Each month John Van Auken provides a lesson with a worksheet, a video, a blog, and in each issue of the member magazine, Venture Inward, he writes an article about this topic. For 2022, we are focusing on Cayce's insights into achieving health, happiness, and a meaningful life. Members can access all of the available material in the Member-only section of our website at EdgarCayce.org/members. 

We might naturally think that the first advice that Cayce gave when trouble comes into our lives was to pray. He was indeed a great promoter for prayer, and believed it was an important part of having the Guardian Forces working with us. However, his first advice when trouble comes was to stop. Yes, stop. Back off and go within. As we know, Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is within us, so apparently Cayce was trying to get us to connect with our Creator – who is omnipotent, omnipresent, and all-knowing. Obviously, our Creator has the greater view from which to advise us in times of trouble. The challenge for us is to find our way to the Creator – a journey within. It’s easy to say, “go within,” but it’s difficult to do.

We have been raised to become increasingly conscious of this dimension of life. We say, “this is real.” We have also come to know ourselves as physical beings with personalities shaped by our childhood, education, reactions to and activities with others. Therefore, when we attempt to reach beyond this reality and beyond our personalities, it requires a breakthrough to another environment and another level of our mind, one that most of us are not familiar with.

To help us grasp dimensions, Edgar Cayce recommended a book by Peter Ouspensky titled, Tertium Organum. In this book the author helps us comprehend the shift in consciousness that is needed to move from a lower dimension to a higher one.

Ouspensky explains that the first dimension (the snail’s world) is a flat plane, but the second dimension does not exist anywhere within that plane. It is perpendicular to anything one-dimensional. The snail will never find the next dimension within the first. It would have to have an altered state of consciousness in order perceive the second dimension – to see the wall in front of him and know that it extended perpendicular to his present surface. Therefore, first-dimensional life does not evolve into second-dimensional life. Each dimension exists within its own reality. It evolves within that reality. A snail is an evolutionary wonder in the first dimension. It makes the amoeba appear primitive. Yet both are one-dimensional consciousnesses.

A cosmically conscious being would perceive the essence of the life force within and beyond the object in its field of view, or for that matter, even beyond its field of view. For example, Cayce would shut down his three-dimensional eyes to “see” beings many miles away from him. At a lower level of this perception, he would be able to describe their current three-dimensional actions (“they are praying in their bedroom”). At higher levels of perception (fourth, fifth, or sixth dimensional levels), he would be able to “see” their past lives, future events in their current lives, even future incarnations, and their place within the Cosmos, the infinite universe. Where was he when he saw this? That’s just it – he was “nowhere” or “everywhere.” These higher dimensions are beyond the spatial realities of the first three dimensions. This level of perception does not exist within the perceptions of the first three dimensions.

Cosmic consciousness is holistic, existing beyond and within all dimensions. It is not that the mind is at some higher place or some distant place, or in the past lives or future lives, but is omnipresent and omniscient. In other words, the mind is infinitely aware.

Here’s a little graphic representation of how perceiving a higher dimension requires a breakthrough in consciousness and cannot be found in the present dimension. As you can see in this diagram a first-dimensional consciousness cannot find the second dimension within its reality. A second dimensional person cannot perceive the next dimension within its present reality. It must have an altered state of consciousness experience to grasp the next dimension.

Now you might be asking where we are going to draw the next line to reveal the fourth dimension. Cayce said that if you look at the cube and perceive the IDEA of the cube in your mind, you have moved into the fourth dimension. You no longer have the physical cube, but you have the “Thought-Form” of the cube, the idea of the cube. Idea is the fourth dimension. Cayce takes us a step further, idea lives in our “imaginative forces” (Cayce’s term), and these forces are innate to us. We may use our imaginative forces to reach beyond the physical world, the physical reality. He taught that “thoughts are real!” They are as real as physical actions. Thoughts can affect physical reality, like a pinprick to a human hand, a thought can painfully affect another person’s subconscious. Despite appearances there is a collective consciousness in which we are all united. A thought from one of us influences all of us. As we learned earlier, Cayce taught that thoughts can be crimes or miracles. The more people have better thoughts, the more humanity grows in a healthy direction. The more enlighten minds there are, the more the light shines throughout humanity.

Now we know what we must do to connect with the mind of God, the Universal Consciousness out of which and in which all minds exist. Tapping into this consciousness requires an altered state of consciousness, and this requires our imaginative forces. Cayce’s method was this: find a comfortable place and position, remove all of your earthly thoughts and concerns, you can take them back up later. Subjugate control of your body temple to your subconscious and your soul. The indication that you have done this is that your breathing will deepen, a stillness will come over you. Now give your subconscious mind the suggestion to rise and expand into the infinite, universal mind of God, or the Universal Consciousness. Imagine this happening. Feel yourself rising above this reality into the higher, more expanded reality of God’s mind. Once you sense the Infinite, Universal Mind, plug into it and maintain the connection. Our job is to seek, connect, and maintain the connection. At this point, we need to become selflessly receptive. Cayce wanted us to say this, “Not my will but your will,” and feel ourselves opening to the God’s guidance in relation to our problem, our trouble, our turmoil – even our temptation or weakness. Feel the guidance, avoid any self-directed influences. We only want the Infinite’s guidance. Then, we must make sure to grasp these and remember them. At this level feelings and thoughts are very delicate. They are light, filmy, and tenuous. We must make sure we bring them into our lower mind that lives in this reality. This part of us must then shape the guidance into clear well-structured thoughts leading to actions.

It takes practice but if you seek, you will find. That is the promise.

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