This psychic reading given by Edgar Cayce at his office, 105th Street and Ocean, Virginia Beach, Va., this 24th day of January, 1932, in accordance with request made by those present - Norfolk Study Group #1.

Present: Edgar Cayce; Gertrude Cayce, Conductor; Gladys Davis, Steno. Minnie Barrett, C. A. Barrett, Esther Wynne, Hannah Miller, Florence Edmonds, Edith Edmonds, M. L. Black, F. M. Freeman, F. Y. Morrow, C. W. Rosoborough, M. L. Rosobourgh, H. L. Cayce, Mildred Davis, Helen Storey, Annie Cayce, L. B. Cayce, Sarah and Lu Hesson, Anne Penn, S. E. McPherson.

TEXT

1. GC: You will have before you the group gathered here and the work which they have done on the lesson of KNOW THYSELF, the first draft of which I hold in my hand. You will give such counsel as will be helpful to the group at this time, and will answer the questions which will be asked concerning this lesson or other phases of the work of the group or their experiences.
2. EC: We have the group as gathered here, as a group, as individuals; also those conditions as surround the group in the activities respecting the preparation of lessons that have been contemplated. There is not as wholehearted cooperation on the preparation of lessons as there should be! They each should contribute their portion to such lessons, that it (the lessons) may be complete as a whole. Do not start and then turn back. Remember, as has been given, he that putteth his hand to the plow and looketh back, better that he had never begun! In the preparations, these have been given for the use of each individual's application, and - as each will apply that given - there will come that which will be helpful to another. As ye have received, so give!
3. Ready for questions.
4. (Q) As I read the first draft of the lesson as prepared, please make such corrections, expansions or suggestions, that may be helpful in clarifying this subject:
   GC: [Reading first paragraph.] Man is endowed with no greater ability that of being able to step aside and study self. Down through the ages there has come the command from the great teachers - "Know Self." It is the key to the door which bars the way to the path of light and understanding of universal law and its creator.
   (A) This correct, yet may be altered in the first lines to clarify those functionings of the spiritual and mental mind; as, the ability being a functioning of that which enables entity to know himself, herself, to be a part of the whole, yet not the whole - which gives the ability of an individual to see self as self is! Few there are, to be sure, that often desire to see themselves as others see them! But he, or she, that would be a channel of blessing, an avenue of expression of the Son, of the Teacher, of the Father, will keep THAT temple, that self, clean!
5. (Q) GC: [Reading second paragraph.] To know self is not only to be cognizant of the acts of the physical body, but to know self as an entity, a complete factor capable of knowing all that goes on within and without of self. This spring of knowledge is tapped only by those who are willing to pay the price. The price is a complete surrender of self with a purification and dedication that comes only through prayer, service and meditation. While it is along the straight and narrow way, it is open to all and freely is the water of life offered to all.
   (A) Well given.
6. (Q) GC: [Reading given third paragraph.] Each as an entity is a miniature copy of the universe, possessing a physical body, a mental body and a spiritual body. These bodies are so closely associated and related that the vibrations of one affect the other two. The mental especially partakes of the other two; in the physical as the conscious mind and in the spiritual as the superconscious mind.
   (A) Well.
7. (Q) GC: [Reading fourth paragraph.] In the study of self, beginning with the physical body we should recognize that it is the temple of the living God, that it has pleased God to manifest Himself through this medium to the world. This physical body is a composite unit of creative force manifesting in the material world.
   (A) Good.
8. GC: [Reading fifth paragraph.] The members of the body must all work in unison, for should one war against another, discord naturally follows. Each member has its office and so important is its office that no other member can be it, neither can it be counted useless and insignificant and as we know ourselves each member is cherished and blessed.
   (A) Good.
9. (Q) GC: [Reading sixth paragraph.] Each organ has its individual office and desires which are in themselves holy. Keep them so. The senses make known to the physical body those magnified desires or natures of the physical body. These are registered in the activities of the physical body in such a way and manner as to stamp upon the very face of the body that which has been magnified through its physical senses. These senses are but attunements with the physical body, each vibrating according to the training of, or elements of concentration by the physical forces of the body, as pertaining to attunements of development of that which the physical body is a material representation; for not only do these show forth that which is magnified in a single appearance or experience of the entity, but the whole impressions that have been received through the varied experiences of the entity; the registering being in the soul of the entity, the same as in the material sense it is in the physiognomy of the individual.
   (A) Very good.
10. (Q) GC: [Reading seventh paragraph.] In the same manner the desires of the mental and spiritual bodies build that which becomes apparent to others and to yourself as you. This process of building up the entity has been going on for ages. The great factors of heredity, environment, karma, thought vibration and the actions of universal law and in the planes beyond the physical, all have their influence upon the entity just as the desires and vibrations of the physical organs attract and build the composition of the physical body. You are a result of not only the development of the race before you, but also the individual development which has been going on since your creation as an individual soul.
    (A) Well said.
11. (Q) Please outline the paragraph for the material on the mental body.
    (A) This may be builded upon that as may be received by each individual, upon their reactions to the effect that cooperation and knowing self gives to their mental beings in preparation. The LESSONS are to be prepared by those that MAGNIFY that they receive, that it may respond or find response IN the mental, and the material, and the spiritual minds of those who seek. Do some work!
12. (Q) The spiritual body.
    (A) The same.
13. (Q) GC: [Reading eighth paragraph.] Study self in its relation to others. Literally stand aside and see self pass. Take the time to be occasionally introspective of that, that may happen in self's relation to others, to see the reaction of others to that as was done by self; "For no man liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself." Take into account the acts, thoughts and words for the day, for these reflect your concept of God. Would you act before God as you do your brother? "A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another." Dare to realize that you now, today, begin to reflect a full development of your soul, that you now manifest God's love and are known before man as you are known of God. Self only stands in the way. Then begin to study and discipline self, that your words and actions may not be so different that they are not children of the same family.
    (A) Good.
14. (Q) GC: [Reading ninth paragraph.] In seeking to know self through meditation, or be taking inventory of self, one is passing, as it were, a "sign post", seeing a little, catching a word here, an idea there, from those we contact day by day, which shows we are all closely related and are traveling somewhere along the same road. Truly therefore, in knowing self is knowing the other fellow also, for all are parts of one mind. Should it not make us more tolerant of the weakness of our brother as we view him as we are, or as we have been? Service being the means of fulfilling our mission here, the question will naturally arise, "Am I doing all that I can for my brother? Am I giving freely of self to help others? Is every moment of my life lived as He would have me live? In other words, am I a channel of blessings to others?"
    (A) Also use the illustration here of, "Who is my mother, my brother?"
15. (Q) GC: [Reading tenth paragraph.] Know self by activities of self in the daily walks of life, by comparing each thought and activity by your standard THE CHRIST. "Be what thou seemeth, live thy creed. Hold up to the earth the torch divine. Be what thou prayest to be made. Let the GREAT MASTER'S step be thine."
    (A) Well.
16. (Q) GC: [Reading eleventh paragraph.] Keep in tune with the creative forces, getting beyond the state of consciousness where the blind lead the blind. "Stand still and know that I am God, and that I dwell within you." Find that place. It is there that self is known. It is there His Spirit bears witness with your spirit that ye are sons of God.
    (A) Well.
17. (Q) GC: [Reading twelfth paragraph.] In your daily periods of meditation hold this prayer: "Father, as we seek to see and know thy face, may we as a group and as individuals come to know ourselves, even as we are known, that we - as lights in Thee - may give the better concept of Thy Spirit in this world." If your actions and thoughts are of God, hold them fast. If they are not, drive them from you. Let not will drive you from the path of understanding. The voice of the soul is seeking its creator. "Behold I stand at the door and knock. He that will hear my voice, I will come in and dwell with him and he with me." There is no way to be pointed out save the "I AM". It is a birth of the spirit. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou heareth the sound thereof. Thou canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth. So it is with everyone born of the spirit. That soul lost in spirit, universal love, will know self even as it is known.
    (A) Well.
18. (Q) [993]: Please expand on what the readings mean by entity, and tell us how to explain to another seeking what it means to consider themselves as an entity, and interpret Par. 10-A in reading of December 27, 1931, [262-8], where it said, "and give life".
    (A) As given in the information, the entity is that combination of the physical body throughout all its experiences in or through the earth, in or through the universe, and the reactions that have been builded by those various or varied experiences, or the spiritual body of an individual. That that IS individual; that that is the sum total of all experience. Then for the ENTITY to create, or give, or be life, it must be a living, acting example of that it is, and not as something separated, inactive, inanimate, not giving but gradually deteriorating. There is the variation that may be seen in the material world as an example: As long as life is in whatever may be a manifestation in the material plane, it IS a GROWTH. As soon as it becomes an inanimate object (though it may be serving a purpose), it IMMEDIATELY BEGINS to deteriorate, disintegrate. BE an entity! BE a LIVING entity! See?
19. (Q) Please explain more fully the following: [GC: Reading last half of first page in lesson of December 27, 1931, 262-8.]
    (A) That is as itself. The confusion that comes to those seeking the expansion of it is the relative relation of the physical body as a unit, yet a portion of the whole. The entity or soul body and its experiences that it may receive, in the clarifying of that which is builded by an entity as it passes from plane to plane. Let's begin with that which was given by Him, "Not that which enterth into a man defileth him, but that which cometh forth. Many are as whitened sepulchres, beautiful without but within full of dead men's bones!" This is referring to the activities of a physical being, but taking into consideration the activities of a physical body, a mental body, AND spiritual body. One that lives to gratify the desires of the fleshly body ALONE may be beautiful without (and often is!), but within is as of those foul, that make for the belittling of the soul - for it must become corruption, and that able to be given out by such an one then is that which brings for that, in its seed, that makes for discord, corruption, disorder. Such an entity, such a soul, passing in - as the tree falls, so must it lie, and the whole shall be paid EVERY WHIT! "My word shall NOT pass away." The soul, the entity, goes to meet that it has builded in that atmosphere, that surrounding, that environ, that vibration it has created or builded for itself; not in the material, but in the spiritual, the universal plane. Then again it enters in the physical plane for the experimenting, or developing, or magnifying, or showing forth that it may build. Just as given in the illustration, that each functioning of the organs of the physical body is dependent one upon another, and - as was given - who finds fault that the hand is not the eye, or the head that it is not the foot, or the comely part that is not the uncomely, and the like? All must be made in attune, in accord, that the WHOLE may be saved, rather than that a portion should suffer through that it may build in this activity through the world. See? This may be clarified most with individuals taking their own EXPERIENCES in the various spheres that brought from one to another position, element, understanding, and meet each as they find in that environ, that surrounding, that which must bring that knowledge of the whole, that "the Father and I ARE one." For the physical body, the mental body, the spiritual body, to rebel, is as for the foot to REBEL that it is not the head, or the hand; or as for the organs to rebel because they have become POISONED by that which UNSEEMINGLY has been fed the body for its sustenance. See? To some the explanation is worse than that first given! But study self in the light of that which is given in knowing self.
20. (Q) [404]: In the training of the subconscious mind, which is more effective, thought or the spoken word, and why?
    (A) In the training of the subconscious mind. first let it be considered as to WHAT is being acted upon. Then the question will answer itself. The subconscious mind is both consciousness and thought or spirit consciousness. Hence may be best classified, in the physical sense, as a habit. Should such an one being acted upon be one that thinks thought would act quicker than the spoken word, then to such an one it would! When it is necessary to reach the subconscious of an individual through the senses of the physical BODY, before it may be visualized by such an one, then the spoken word would be more effective - and you may see why. Hence that which is spoken (for why the question is asked) to a growing, developing body in oral manner to the sleeping or semi-conscious mind will act the better still! That answers the question for THIS body!
21. (Q) Please explain, as to a little child, the method of introspection.
    (A) As the body-consciousness may view how that one word of a conversation led to another in an evening, so may the body-consciousness see from introspection, "What caused me to think or act in such a manner under such and such circumstance? Why answered I sharply under THIS particular experience and gentle in another?" The introspection gives the body that insight into the mental forces of the physical and soul-consciousness of a body, BY such introspection.
22. (Q) Is there any message to me as secretary?
    (A) There has been a WONDERFUL awakening to the body in the activities in which the body has been active, since the last question was asked, - and as that joy comes WITH such - then use the ABILITIES to expand in EVERY way and manner. It is well!
23. (Q) Please give a prayer which may be sent to individuals seeking aid through the healing group [281] for them to hold in the daily meditations.
    (A) May there be magnified in me that as the Father sees I have need of. THY WILL, O Father, be done IN me, as THOU seest I have need of!
24. (Q) Any other special messages for the group, or any individual?
    (A) As ye seek, my children, to give life, light, understanding to others, faint not. Be not double-minded, but keep ever that which has been committed unto thee as thou WOULD present it before that throne of grace, of mercy. And His peace abide WITH you always!
25. We are through.

BACKGROUND

1. Subject of Reading 262-10 - "Study Group #1".

Edgar Cayce Readings © 1971, 1993, 1994, 1995 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation