1/17/78 At Tuesday A.M. WORK READINGS discussion group, Hugh
Lynn Cayce was asked to describe what he thought was meant
throughout the Edgar Cayce readings by "THE FORCES", such as
referred to in 254-25, Par. 4-A, on
8/20/25.
As I understand "THE FORCES", I think we have to go back to
the beginning, really. The original plan, the original
purpose in the mind and heart of God for the creation of
the soul that was set forth in the creation, in the original
plan, as is indicated in one place in the readings, "stamped
on every soul," is the image of the Christ Consciousness
which was given by God and only needs to be awakened by
our wills, in application. The will was given to Man as
part of God's original creation: The Divine Mind, the
Divine Spirit and the Divine Will. That's a part of God
that makes up the soul as it was created.
Now, you have the forces that relate to God's purpose for man
in creation. Then, as man, as the souls began to express
themselves in different planes of consciousness, they did
this by creating thought forms. This is clearly defined in
in the readings as "thought patterns" that were created LIKE
what God had created. Man saw what God had created and man,
with his creative mind, created a form LIKE that. As he
created it, he became involved in it. As a simile, we might
say that man reaches into a tar barrel which is a kind of
cold tar and it is hard to move it, hard to control it, and
tries to shape an image with his hand. He gets caught; he
gets stuck in the tar barrel. He's trapped there by what
he has created. He won't turn loose of it and he can't pull
it out. It's almost like the old symbol of the monkey that
wants the piece of fruit that is in the jar, and as long as
he holds the piece of fruit in his hand he can't pull his
hand out of the jar. The thought forms that man became
involved and ensnared in became hardened and they trapped
a part of the soul energy in the earth. I think we can find
readings that indicate that this trapping took place; that
part of the soul is caught in what it has created as matter.
These were the thought forms that gradually have hardened
and have become what we know as bodies, as energy patterns,
in the three-dimensional expression. Then, through the
bodies, man's mind, the soul's mind began to create thought
forms at the flesh level where the body becomes an energy
pattern and a thought form. In addition, on other levels
of consciousness, man built a finer physical body which is
a thought body that interpenetrates the flesh and moves much
faster than the flesh body. That thought form is the one
we use when we die. That is the DOPPELGANGER form that we
use in the out-of-body experience. It, too, is a thought
form and it relates to matter. The readings say we're free
of the flesh when we move in that body, but we're not free
of matter. It still is made up of finer, faster moving,
material thought processes. So, it is a finer thought body.
There are readings that say that some people in having
out-of-body experiences see shells, empty shells of these
thought forms on other planes of consciousness. Some people
call this the astral, but that's a limiting term, I think.
There are many other layers, other levels. Dad [Edgar
Cayce] described these thought forms as he went out looking
for readings. He speaks of himself passing on a shaft of
light through many planes. Every plane had thought forms on
it that had been created by man; energy patterns that had
withdrawn from one shell, withdrawn from another shell, and
were moving in consciousness. These thought forms are "the
forces" that are spoken of in the readings; these thought
form forces combined with the original forces and pattern of
God's purpose for the souls in the earth; in creation, not
only in this earth but in all creation. So, when man builds
patterns that are opposed to God's will, he creates negative
forces, rebellious forces. They become rebellious forces to
which he can attune. However, he also builds cooperative
forces in patience and love and long-suffering. The
readings reiterate THESE over and over again; so, THESE
forces that he builds become good.
As groups of people, groups of souls, come into the earth
in cycles, they develop agreement in trying to move the
constructive forces and to return to the same consciousness
that God had for man: the Christ Consciousness, in other
words, in a broad universal sense. So, in one incarnation,
they developed a plan, a pattern to express love and service
and they began to carry on a work that is in accord with
God's love. Those thought forms become FORCES. Those
patterns of thought, those purposes, become FORCES in the
earth. Man can draw on what he has done together with a
group.
In the work of the Association, I'm sure, we are seeing the
effect of forces that have been building. The readings say
this - for me they say this: that we built a pattern of
service and healing and help in one incarnation in Egypt and
then we built another pattern in Persia... Here, again, we
come back and pick up and draw on these forces of thought
forms, these purposes and ideals and goals that have been
set. We draw on those. When they're in accord with God's
purposes they move forward and they create help and magnify
service and magnify patterns of healing, and good is
accomplished. But when we, in ourselves as individuals,
tune in to the rebellious parts that we have created, that
man has created, we become rebellious. Then we are in tune
with the negative forces. They are of our creation, but
they were also of God's creation in the beginning. But we,
in our slowed-down state of consciousness, have lost track
of the forces for good that God created. We don't see
angelic forces as often, apparently, as the Bible people
used to see them. Maybe we do, but it's certainly not
reported.
There are descriptions of man being in tune with God's
forces, in the history of his being in the earth. Gradually,
he shuts that off until he no longer is in tune with the
original forces - the original forces that God set up as
man's purpose in creation. At any point, man has the right,
the opportunity to attune himself to the forces of good, as
the readings say; that is, to God's original purposes for the
soul. Or, he has the opportunity to tune in to all the
negative purposes that he has created in the earth, the
rebellious parts not only of himself but of others. Then,
he is influenced by the negative forces and he suffers as a
result of that. He gets sick, he fights wars, he kills his
brothers, he destroys himself and others as he attunes to the
negative and the rebellious. At every point we are able to
tune in to the good, the creative, or tune in to the
negative. And there is, as old Moses said to us, there is
set before us this day light and darkness, good and evil;
choose thou which way you are going [Deut. 30]. We have that
choice to make, that exercising of the will at every second
of every moment of every experience on whatever level of
consciousness we are. Whatever world we attune to, that will
is there and can make a choice of attunement. To me, that is
[what is meant by] THE FORCES, the good and the bad forces.
That explains spiritual healing, too. The Physical Readings
are full of the forces like the rhythm forces, the kidney
forces, the heart forces, the brain forces. They're all
patterns. All patterns for each element of the body have
been going on and adding to the creative or the destructive,
every time we eat, every time we think. We forget that the
mind is the builder, as the readings say so frequently, and
[that] the physical is the result. Any form is the result.
We think about a chair and then we build a chair. The
thought has to do with it the minute it comes into whatever
dimension we are working in. And it's not just in the flesh
or the three-dimensional, but in all these other dimensions
in which we build these forces and thought forms, that we
are all attuned either to good or to the rebellious. That's
the way I see it.
Edgar Cayce Readings © 1971, 1993, 1994, 1995 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation