This psychic reading given by Edgar Cayce at the Edmonds' home on Pennsylvania Ave., Norfolk, Va., this 9th day of June, 1935, in accordance with request made by those present.

Present: Edgar Cayce; Gertrude Cayce, Conductor; Gladys Davis, Steno. Florence & Edith Edmonds, Frances Y. Morrow, Hugh Lynn Cayce, Helen Storey, Helen Ellington and Ruth LeNoir.

TEXT

1. GC: You will have before you the Norfolk Study Group #1, members of which are present here, and their work on the lesson "Destiny". You will continue at this time the discourse on the section pertaining to the destiny of the body, and answer questions.
2. GC: Yes, we have the group as gathered here, as a group; as individuals, and their work of the lesson Destiny.
3. In considering further what has been given relative to the destiny of the body, much of this for the individual needs clarification. But unless effort is made with the mental application of same by the individuals, little clarification may come.
4. As has been indicated, that each may make the lessons living truths, make personal application of same. For the body being of the earth earthy, true indeed is the destiny as is set; that as in Adam ye all die, so in Christ are all made alive.
5. In THIS statement does it appear as to whether this has reference to the natural body or to the superficial body. With what manner of body hath man appeared, and doth man appear? BODY is form. FORM is pattern. By what hast thou patterned thy body? What dost thou use as thy measurements? But if ye count time, ye know not the manner of that ye build. For in Him hath He said that ye shall become aware of all that hath been from the foundations of the earth. As in Him ye all live, as in the first Adam ye all die, so in the last Adam are all made alive.
6. Keep that pattern which is set before thee in what are and are to be the effects, the results, the essentials, the elements, the mode and manner of thy divinations. What are the attributes of that body which ye as individuals, as souls, would present to thy Maker? Who put on flesh, put on a body, that ye might have the greater knowledge, the greater understanding? What is knowledge, what IS understanding, if ye apply it not in thy daily life?
7. Ready for questions.
8. (Q) [993]: Please explain what was meant as given in an early reading, that anyone taking up this work would have to give up the world for a season? Does this mean a preparation? Explain.
   (A) Take that illustrated by Him; that if ye are OF the world and in the world then ye are the world's, but that if ye are in the world and of the Lord ye ARE the Lord's. Then as may be said, in making the personal, practical application of the tenets, the truths, the life, the light, the understanding that may be presented to thee through these sources, these channels, if ye would abide in them ye are NOT OF the world - only in the world. Hence that given, ye that would take up this as a PRACTICAL thing, or ye that would become channels of blessings to thy fellow man, give up the world. Not that there is not to be the use OF things material. Even thy Master paid His tribute to Caesar.
9. (Q) [288]: Please explain how physical conditions may come to pass as dreamed of at times regarding individuals. Are such conditions set at the time dreamed of? Why would one dream of any given condition? [See detailed dream 262-83, Par. R1.]
   (A) The law of cause and effect is immutable, by choice in individual experience. Or choice is the factor that alters or changes the effect produced by that which is the builder for every experience of associations of man, in even material experience. Hence as thought and purpose and aim and desire are set in motion by minds, their EFFECT is as a condition that IS. For its end, then, has been set in that He, the Giver of the heavens and the earth and those things therein, has set the END thereof. DREAM is but ATTUNING an individual mind to those individual storehouses of experience that has been set in motion. Hence at times there may be the perfect connection, at others there may be the static of interference by inability of coordinating the own thought to the experience or actuality or fact set in motion. Hence those experiences that are visioned are not only as has been given to some, to be interpreters of the unseen, but to others dreams or as dreamer of dreams, to others as prophecy, to others healing, to others exhortation, to this and that and the other; yet all are of the same spirit. Hence this is the manner as may be seen. This has little reference to BODY-DESTINY, but much with the MIND.
10. (Q) [585]: Would the conflict between spirit and flesh cause one to be affected physically, to become tired or even ill?
    (A) RELATIVELY so. As He gave, "For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise and walk?" Or again when confronted by that which had become as a disease, as a temperament of the body, as the wantonness of the flesh, He said to the woman, "Where are those thine accusers? - No man, Lord - Neither do I accuse thee; but SIN NO MORE." What took place then in the experience of those individuals spoken to by LIFE, Light and Immortality? These were concentrated and centralized upon the activity of what? What has ever been the builder, body, mind and spirit? As given, the expressions are in the physical, the motivative force is the spirit, the mind is the builder. What was builded? Those bodies had dwelt as individuals do (as may be illustrated in habit) with the interconsciousness of the necessity of the expression of something within self which brought dis-ease, the natural result of what? An at-variance to the divine law! Hence it may truly be said that to be at-variance may bring sickness, dis-ease, disruption, distress in a physical body. It is true then that the mind may heal entirely by the spoken word, by the laying on of hands, dependent upon the CONSCIOUSNESS of the motivative forces in the individual body. Yet those requiring material expression to create a balance may necessitate drug, knife, water, heat, electricity, or ANY of those forces that are yet what? What is the spirit? The MANIFESTATION OF GOD! The CREATIVE Force working in, with and upon what? The awareness, the interconsciousness of the BODY, the mind, the spirit, as separated in individuals! O that all would gain JUST that! and not feel, "Yes, I understand - but my desires and my body and my weaknesses and this or that - and I didn't do it." Who else did?
    This may be a hard statement for many, but you will eventually come to know it is true: No fault, no hurt comes to self save that thou hast created in thine consciousness, in thine inner self, the cause. For only those that ye love may hurt you.
11. (Q) [307]: Any message for her at this time?
    (A) Keep inviolate that thou knowest. Love the Lord and His ways. Put thy trust wholly in Him. He is able to bear thee up and to present in thine inner self that awareness which will make thee anew. Those that look only to the god within become idol worshippers; for the expression that is of thy concept is what one does ABOUT that concept!
12. (Q) Any message for the group as a whole?
    (A) Be ye joyous in thy service to thy fellow man, in the NAME of Him who is able to keep thy ways. Count thy hardships, thy troubles, even thy disappointments, rather as stepping-stones to know His way better. Be ye joyous; be ye happy in HIS LOVE. For He hath loved us, even when afar. How much more when we try, though we may stumble and fail! For the trial, the test, the DETERMINATION creates that which will rise as faithful, true, and as righteousness before the throne of grace. For thou art under a dispensation of mercy. Be ye merciful. Be ye unhurt by hard words. For THY hurts are His! Bear them, then, with Him in thy dealings with thy fellow man. If ye would have love, show thyself lovely; not only to those that speak kindly to thee - for what profit have ye? Are ye seeking the easy way? Did He? Come! Be joyous in thy love for thy friend, thy foe, thy loved ones, thy enemies. For ALL are His; and as ye do it unto the least ye do it unto Him.
13. We are through.

BACKGROUND

1. Subject of Reading 262-83 - "Norfolk Study Group #1."

REPORTS

1. GD's detailed dream referred to in 262-83, Par. 9-A:
   In late January of 1934 Edgar Cayce, Hugh Lynn Cayce, and I were visitors for the weekend at the Ladd home on Long Island. Late Sunday night Mrs. Ladd was telling me about her husband's financial difficulties; his job was insecure, and they were about to lose their home. As I got in bed I remember wishing I could do something to help the Ladd family. It turned awfully cold that night and I was very uncomfortable. Although the little modern cottage was steam heated, I was from the South and it seemed mighty cold to me. Early the next morning, January 29, 1934, I was awakened by this dream:
   "A knock on the door. I said, 'Come in.' Mr. Ladd stood there with a coal scuttle in his hand, and wearing a lumber jacket. (I had never seen him in anything but a business suit.) He came in and made a fire in a little coal stove which stood in the room, saying, 'Now the room will soon be warm so you can get up.'"
   On the train back to New York later that morning I told Mr. Cayce and Hugh Lynn about the dream, when relating what an uncomfortable night I had experienced. We all laughed and attributed the dream to my discomfort. Still, I remember remarking how strange it was that the room should be different from the one I was occupying - which had cute little radiators on two sides of it (too cute and too little).
   In early April of 1935 while on a business trip to New York the three of us were spending the weekend as guests of Harold J. Reilly at his Sun Air Farm, Oak Ridge, N.J. On Sunday morning, April 7, 1935, when I said "Come in" to a knock on my door, there stood Mr. Ladd in his lumber jacket a coal bucket in his hand, and he said, "I thought you'd like to have a little fire in your stove to take the chill off while you get dressed." I immediately noticed that the little room was exactly the same as I had dreamed it over a year ago.
   You see, Mr. Ladd had become manager of Sun Air Farm in January of 1935, a year after we visited him in Long Island. If he had not come to my room to make the fire, I would never have remembered the dream nor recognized the room. So many questions arose in my mind as a result of this dream coming true that I sought the answer in above reading 262-83, Par. 9-A.

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