Q) I have a child in school who has trouble remembering and memorizing material for classes. I know that Edgar Cayce, as a boy, memorized his spelling lessons by taking a nap on the book. Is this something we can teach young students today?
A) Yes, the story of Edgar Cayce sleeping on his spelling book and then having a photographic memory of its content is one of the most memorable events told in his biography, There Is a River. Though Cayce had this ability, he never told us how to do it. However, he did answer a 12-year-old boy’s question in reading 1581-2, on how to improve his memory. This did include suggestions on what to do before falling asleep each night:
Q) Will you give me suggestions as to how to improve my work in school, and my memory?
A) Let that be rather as this:
That which ye would attain in the studies as to that which is a text, a thesis or a theory—mull same as it were in thy mind, in thy consciousness. Then lay it aside, and meditate rather upon its application in every way and manner. Do this especially just before ye would rest in physical consciousness, or from physical consciousness—or in sleep.
And ye will find thy memory, thy ability to analyze, thy ability to maintain and retain greater principles will be thy experience.
For remember that the principle is throughout physical, mental and spiritual alike. For thy body is physical, mental and spiritual. Each phase of same has its individual attributes, but all—and that alone that is eternal—is spiritual in its essence.
Hence in the physical application ye pass to, through the physical eye, or through the ear, or through the sense of consciousness, that as of a physical law, or as a physical thesis, as a physical theory. This ye pass for judgment to thy mental consciousness, and in the laying aside of thy physical consciousness the spiritual attributes record same as it were upon thy real self.
Hence the growth to encompass same is natural—just as ye find illustrated in thy interpretation of harmony in thy musical interpretations that are set before thee from time to time.
-- Edgar Cayce reading 1581-2
This question first appeared in an A.R.E. member benefit newsletter. A.R.E. membership benefits can be received through the mail or accessed in the member-only section of our website online. Not a member? Learn more at EdgarCayce.org/membership.
How to Ask Edgar
Though Edgar Cayce died in 1945, he left us a legacy of 14,306 readings covering an astonishing 10,000 topics in about 24 million words! Send your question through our Ask Edgar Submission Form, and a staff person or volunteer will mine the readings database for an answer. Though we can't promise that all questions will be answered, you can check our Ask Edgar blog category for a response to yours or similar questions.
