This psychic reading given by Edgar Cayce at the Edmonds' home on Pennsylvania Ave., Norfolk, Va., this 20th day of May, 1934, in accordance with request made by those present.

Present: Edgar Cayce; Gertrude Cayce, Conductor; Gladys Davis, Steno. Minnie & C. A. Barrett, Esther Wynne, Florence & Edith Edmonds, Frances Y. Morrow, Hugh Lynn Cayce, Mildred Mary Davis, Helen Storey, Helen Ellington, Ruth LeNoir, Mrs. Edgar Parry, Mr. and Mrs. Brooks.

TEXT

1. GC: You will have before you the Norfolk Study Group #1, members of which are present in this room, and their work on the lessons, "God, The Father, and His Manifestations in the Earth" and, "Desire." Before taking up the second of these, please tell us what changes should be made in paragraphs 8 and 9 of the copy I hold in my hand. You will answer the questions which may be asked.
2. EC: Yes, we have the group as gathered here, as a group, as individuals, and their work on the lessons.
3. In the paragraph as referred to for alterations, this experience should be worded not as different from the experience of the individual, but as an experience or as a question.
4. In the preparation for the lesson on Desire, as has been given, there should be the outline as to the nature of physical desire, mental desire, and how these may be spiritualized.
5. As to that which may be helpful at this time for those that have (in a way) drawn some questions, consider these and see how they rate. First, we would give this:
6. In creation we find a difference in that recorded in the Word and that which is nature and that which is the experience of all that have given thought; for when man was brought into being there was a variation in the creation. For it was to him, it is to him, it will be in him, that the changes are wrought as to the manifestations of the Father, the Creator, in material plane. How?
7. Consider that in the beginning of the earth, that has been shown in information given that may be illustrated in the experiences of those that study any phase of the biological or pathological aspects of nature. Man has either drawn away from the first creation or has been endowed with that which is of a different stage or condition, the ability to react in more than one plane. Through what?
8. As given in the Scripture, there was breathed into man the soul. Biologically, man makes himself as an animal of the physical; with the desires that are as the instinct in animal for the preservation of life, for the development of species, and for food. These three are those forces that are instinct in the animal and in man. If by that force of will man uses these within self for the aggrandizement of such elements in his nature, these then become the material desires - or are the basis of carnal influences, and belittle the spiritual or soul body of such an individual.
9. So, the basis of physical desire is adding to, contributing to, or gathering together in forces that which makes for the abilities for such a soul, such an individual, to rebel in those forces that are of the animal nature of that individual. Hence he becomes, through carnal or physical desire, one who has no recourse through other than spirit; though he is given the soul that it may be everlasting, that it may be a companion with the Creator, that it may be aware of itself yet one with those influences that make for the spiritualizing of that force which is creative in itself - that makes for god-likeness in the individual soul or activity.
10. Then, what is the basis of mental desire? The mental as an attribute is also of the animal, yet in man - with his intellect - the ability to make comparisons, to reason, to have the reactions through the senses; that are raised to the forces of activity such that they create for man the environs about him and make for change in hereditary influences in the experience of such a soul. These are the gifts with that free-will agent, or attributes of same; or mind is a development of the application of will respecting desire that has become - in its essence - used as a grace, the gift to give praise for that which it has applied in its experience.
11. Then, the mental desire that is to laud self, to appraise self above its fellows, or to use that gift in its application to the various activities in the experiences of self or others, makes for that channel through which the carnal desires only become the stumbling blocks in the experiences of those who dwell on same.
12. For, as has been given as one of the immutable laws, that which the mind of a SOUL - a SOUL - dwells upon it becomes; for mind is the builder. And if the mind is in attune with the law of the force that brought the soul into being, it becomes spiritualized in its activity. If the mind is dwelling upon or directed in that desire towards the activities of the carnal influences, then it becomes destructive in such a force.
13. Hence, as it has been given, "Let Thy will, O God, be my desire! Let the desire of my heart, my body, my mind, be Thy will, O Father, in the experiences that I may have in the earth!"
14. When there is the consideration within self, through the self-analysis of self in the light TRULY of that which has been given, how oft must thine own acts condemn thee! And, as the Master has given, "I do not condemn, for thou art condemned already" in the manner thou hast applied thyself, thy abilities, thy birthrights, in the light of that thou knowest, that thou seest manifested in thy life day by day!
15. And when ye consider what disappointments ye have had in individual associations, think how thy God must have been disappointed in thee when thou hast spoken lightly of thy brother, when thou hast condemned him in thine own conscience, when thou has questioned as to the purpose of those hearts that sought in the light of the best that THEY understood - or that even used their abilities for the aggrandizing of their own selfish motives. Hast thou prayed with them? Hast thou spoken kindly with them? Might not their path have been shown in THINE life that desire as He manifested when He thought it not robbery to be equal with God and to offer Himself, His life, His body, His desires, as a sacrifice for thee that thou in thine own self-glory, in thine own understanding, might come to a knowledge that the desires of the heart - if they are spiritualized in that thou livest the life He has shown thee - thou may have in thine experience that He has promised, "What ye ask in my name, believing, that may the Father give thee?" Why art thou impatient? For the carnal forces are soon given over to the lusts thereof, but the spirit is alive through eternity! Be not impatient, but love ye the Lord!
16. We are through.
17. COME, YE CHILDREN THAT SEEK THE LIGHT! BOW THINE HEADS IN PRAISE TO THE SON. FOR, THE WAY FOR EACH OF YOU THAT WOULD SEEK HIS FACE IS BEING OPENED BEFORE THEE. THE SON OF MAN, THE CHRIST, THY LORD, IS AMONG THEE, EVEN IN THINE HEART - IF YE WILL BUT OPEN THE DOOR TO HIM! [Angel:Archangel:Michael?]

BACKGROUND

1. Subject of Reading 262-63 - "Norfolk Study Group #1."

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