Prayer is mentioned 1,643 times throughout the Edgar Cayce Readings. The 262 series given to the original Study Group (Norfolk Study Group No. 1) references the subject in over 65 of the 131 sessions recorded over 11 years—that’s nearly half of those readings! The members in this “experiment of a lifetime” were told that the Work would be incomplete without delving into prayer and meditation as a tool for spiritual healing.
Over and over again, the Prayer Group members were instructed to always pray for God’s Will to work within the person for the Highest Good in every situation.
…in every manner that the works of God may be manifest in their lives, and every meditation or prayer: Thy will, O God, be done in that body as Thou seest best…not my will but Thine be done!
-- Edgar Cayce reading 281-4
This would seem to be a simple concept. However, the struggle not to impose our own will onto another is hardest with those closest to us. Our love is so great and having personal knowledge of the situation often clouds our perception. Of course, we believe we know what is best. But offering prayer for what we believe is best is actually negating the other’s free will and does a disservice to the person who is asking for support. This was apparently an issue for the members of the original Prayer Group. In this exchange, an eager member with the best of intentions was admonished in this exchange:
Q) Could Carrie Everett…be healed through me?
A) By gaining first that sincere desire on the part of Carrie Everett to be, want to be, healed! Then there may be raised within self that that will overcome those destructive forces that are eating at the vitals of the physical body.
Q) In what way?
A) By first – there must be the desire, that can only come within self.
Q) I have four ways of healing. Which shall I use?
A) There must first be the desire on the part of Carrie Everett to be healed! You cannot create them, no matter what thou hast! God cannot save (one) that would not be saved!
-- Edgar Cayce reading 281-3
Prayer is more than attuning one’s mind to the spiritual. It is a cooperative effort to connect body and mind with the goal of allowing the soul to communicate with the Divine. It is a state of becoming, of allowing the self to step aside and beckon forth the Creative Forces. Then, and only then, can you approach another as the Christ Spirit would—meeting each of us exactly where we are.
My mentor and former Prayer Group secretary, Nancy Edwards, continues to guide and inspire me from the other side. Nancy was mentored by Ruth LeNoir, who was a Prayer Group member for 40 years before that, learning directly from Edgar Cayce himself. Her words still echo in my ear: “The overall message when serving as a channel is that ‘God loves you just as you are, and is creating the way for your highest good.’”
This blog is part of Lesson 9 of our 2018 Enlightenment Series. Members can access all of the available material, which also includes an online video and downloadable monthly practice with homework, in the member-only section of our website at EdgarCayce.org/members. Not a member? Join now.
