1/28/28 GD's note: The following lecture was given in
Birmingham on
1/28/28 by Morton H. Blumenthal, President
of the Association of National Investigators, Inc. and
was subsequently printed into this little booklet. It is
reproduced here simply because the date sequence of Mrs.
[
4863]'s reading makes a background for it. She and many
of her friends attended the lecture.
Lecture Delivered by MORTON H. BLUMENTHAL
President of the Association of National Investigators,
Incorporated
Under Auspices Of The Association of National Investigators,
Incorporated
Delivered at BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA Saturday Evening January
28, 1928
FOREWORD
The following Lecture was delivered by Mr. Morton Blumenthal
in Birmingham, Ala., in conjunction with an announcement made
by Mr. Edgar Cayce, Secretary of the Association of National
Investigators, Inc., regarding the work of the Association.
Mr. Cayce announced the purchase of extensive lands in Va.
Beach, Va., made by the Association for the erection of a
Hospital and Educational center.
Plans for same have been drawn, bids submitted.
He made an appeal for membership to the Association in
order that those interested and desirous of affiliation with
this great world wide Scientific venture might have the
opportunity of doing so.
The Institution is to furnish the means where treatment
suggested in Readings may be properly administered and
scientifically recorded.
Finally he advised the formation of a Group to be organized
in Birmingham, Ala., to be affiliated with the Association of
National Investigators, Inc. The purpose of this group like
many others forming in other cities would be the careful
examination of records made by the Association of
information given in Readings.
The group would also engage in a course of study of the
Phenomena itself.
THE THREE ELEMENTS OF HAPPINESS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO
PSYCHIC PHENOMENA
Life as we know it is material whether in the lower form of
matter and animal or higher form of man. Yet science has
shown us that material life or the material world is but the
phenomenized manifestation of some unknowable elemental force
that fills the whole of space, the manifesting dissociations
of which unknowable force composes the various spheres,
worlds, and fields of consciousness that make up the whole of
the universe. The ocean waves are but the phenomena of the
internal process or motion of the ocean water. Viewing life
externally, we see the waves or the phenomena rather than
life in its internal essence or process. The waves dissipate
themselves upon the beach, but the water returns to become
one homogeneous body, there to reform again into other
onrushing waves. To us, the water in action forms different
heterogeneous waves, and just so to us the one internal
homogeneous and unknowable life energy forms of itself
different heterogeneous manifestations that we, an
externalized heterogeneous manifestation ourselves, cognize
as different and separate three dimensional heterogeneous
realities. That is, whatever matter and force are in
elemental substance, that also consciousness is. The science
of psychology explains thought as being motion or force, but
what this force is in essence, what it looks like and why
it works, we do not know. P. D. Ouspensky, in his Tertium
Organum, shows that we may never, by objective observation,
gain this knowledge. Some unknowable force that constitutes
the essence of creation has self-contained within it an
element that we call consciousness. In this earthly section
of creation, this unknowable force of space becomes an
electronic or atomic manifestation that crystalizes into what
we call matter. From this point this force continues to push
its way in materialized, manifested or phenomenized form
until it reaches the stage of the higher animal and finally
man.
Regarding the elemental, changeless essences of matter, Dr.
Willis R. Whitney, Director of the Research Laboratory of
the General Electric Company, has to say:
"Matter is at least not merely dry and hard not yet soft
and wet. It is electronic and celestial, whatever that may
mean, and the most that we know about it is that it is almost
entirely space. It is as empty as the sky. It is almost as
empty as a perfect vacuum although it usually contains a lot
of energy.
"For example, a vacuum through which light is passing
contains radiant energy. Apparently matter is only this same
vacuum in which there are enormous numbers of positive and
negative electronic charges, which, however, occupy or fill
only an exceedingly small portion of the space attributed to
matter."
Matter then, we find reduced to an electronic energy which
fills only a small section of this unknowable essence that
composes both heaven and earth, or space. Of thought or
consciousness, William James tells us that so far as the
sensations are concerned, they may be traced to the vibratory
activity or process of our psychic apparatus, but what the
force is in substance that causes the nerve ends to vibrate,
we do not know.
Obviously, this unknowable force that fills the whole of
space operates to become in one section, matter, mind and
motion of the physical kind that we know about in our world.
Just as Spencer indicated, one homogeneous essence functions
to become the split heterogeneous manifestations of the
material world, yet it not only becomes these heterogeneous
forms as regards matter, but also as regards consciousness,
as psychology and psychic science of today is coming to
understand.
If this is true, if one unknowable fourth dimensional energy
functions to change itself into a phenomenized manifestation
in the form of the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms,
and finally into man, then, of course, matter that is
the mineral and vegetable kingdom must also manifest
consciousness in materialized form.
Most of us have gotten so in the habit of regarding life
or consciousness as being possible only where animation is
indicated, that we forget the fact that consciousness is
possible, either below or above the horizon of sensuous
vision. We see certain colors in the rainbow, for example,
from the red to the violet, yet below the red end are color
vibrations that we are unable to see, and above the violet
end are ultra rays that we likewise may not cognize. We
might say that the consciousness of matter represents the
lower part of these invisible rays below the red end of the
rainbow. Likewise we might say of that consciousness that
is of a character higher and other than we are capable of
knowing about in this earth world, might compare to the
higher or ultra-violet end of the rainbow. Those beneath
the red end are too slow in vibration for us to see and
those above the violet end are too fast for us to cognize.
Science recognizes the consciousness of the mollusk that is
of the lower animals of the invertebrate classification, for
example, the snail, the cuttle fish, etc. Where a psychic
apparatus is not present and thus sensation absent,
consciousness is not necessarily also absent. Likewise
animation or lack of animation is no proof of the
indication or lack of indication of consciousness.
I have not time in this short lecture to go into detail
regarding the proof offered by great psychologists and
philosophers contemporary and ancient, that have found and
proven the existence of consciousness manifested in the
mineral, vegetable and lower animal kingdoms. The latter
form manifest in materialized form that self-contained,
unknowable element in the creative energy of space that in
materialized form we call consciousness. The only difference
between the consciousness represented in matter and the
lower animals and that represented in the higher animals
is a difference of degree. When it reaches the vertebrate
kingdom, consciousness attains that degree that may
experience sensuously and that exhibit animation.
Even when conscious manifestation of the materialized kind
reaches the growth of sensuous experience and animation, it
exhibits a difference of degree. The animate lower animal,
such as a snail, for example, possesses a development of mind
that enables him to experience space and the outside world
one dimensionally. You would cognize space as existing upon
one line and everything outside of the range of vision of the
one line right before his eyes would appear as non-existent.
An insect crawling over a table, for example, would see
himself crawling along one straight line that appeared before
his eyes, and a bread-crumb moved into the range of his
vision would appear to be an event coming out of the unknown
future and into the known present. Likewise, the bread-crumb
moved over a few inches out of the one line or one
dimensional range of vision of the insect would be to the
insect an event disappearing from the present going into
the unknown past. Therefore, we may say that the unknowable
essence that is the fundamental principle composing all
creation, changes itself in this section of creation to
become a materialized, one dimensional manifestation that we
call the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom and the lower
animal kingdom.
Whereas this latter kingdom is a development of the
unknowable, creative spirit energy that in externalized or
phenomenized form becomes a one dimensional materialization
in the form of matter and the lower animal, the higher animal
represents a materialized manifestation of a growth of this
section of the unknowable force that we call two dimensional.
The dog, for example, is so developed in mind as to be able
to be able to impose only two dimensional qualities upon
space or the outside world. He cognizes not only one line,
but an entire surface. Yet on the other hand, he may not
cognize solids. The dog would see a house as being four
separate and individual realities, each one of the latter of
which would be a side of the house. Just as we would see two
houses as two separate individual realities, so the dog would
cognize two sides of what we know to be one house, as two
separate and individual realities. Such an animal running
around the corner of a house would cognize one surface
disappearing into the past and another event or side of the
house coming into his present range of experience from out of
the unknown future.
Therefore, we may say that the higher animal in body and
mind is a growth of this unknowable force manifesting itself
externally in the phenomenized form of that which we call the
higher animal.
We have then the world outside of ourselves as being a
one or two dimensional manifestation of one section of
the unknowable force's creative process. This embraces,
of course, all of our earth world, including our own
physical bodies and our own sensory system.
Now, while we may safely assume that our material world
manifests itself in phenomenized form every condition
present in the universe, or in other words, every condition
present in the creative energy in its unphenomenized form,
nevertheless or other sections or dissociations of this
unknowable creative energy, also represent different kinds
of operations and fields of growth in of this same energy.
There are the planets, satellites and heavenly bodies of this
universe and of other universes, for example, and while this
world may represent in materialized form every condition
present in those other worlds (for all worlds are but
dissociated manifestations of this one unknowable force of
space), nevertheless we have no right to assume that the
other worlds represent a sensuous kind of consciousness
or physical kind of matter. In other words, an elemental
electronic force crystallizes into matter and pushes its
growth into the higher animal kingdom of which our physical
selves are a part, but some other kind of elemental force
grows into whatever kind of matter mind and force composes
the world of Mars, Venus or of any other planets in the
universe. We may say that one spirit energy of space
dissociates from out of its homogeneous essence those
elemental forces that become the different sections or worlds
that compose the universe. One vibratory force of life, for
example, straining through a glass prism splits to become
many different colors, or, in other words, different kinds
of vibratory light activities. Yet all kinds are in essence,
still that which vibrates to become to our observation light
colors. Just so one unknowable energy splits into different
kinds or aspects of matter, mind and consciousness, each
of which split manifestations compose one of the worlds or
sections of space. If this is the case, it is altogether
reasonable to expect that in the planet Mars, for
example, the inhabitants would possess a body and kind of
consciousness that is adaptable to and peculiar to that
particular environment, exactly as do the inhabitants of
our earth world.
Now then, this unknowable force is capable of going just so
far in its growth in each dissociated section or world for
each section or world is a manifested representation of only
a portion of the whole. The higher animal kingdom and that
within our own selves which is animal, i.e., our physical
bodies, and instinctive self, is as far as this force may go
or manifest itself in its growth in this particular section.
As a dissociated electronic or atomic activity, it may reach
no further or higher in its growth. We may be assured of
this, for man, creation's highest physical development,
represents not only a materialized manifestation of atomic
force, but also some internal, subsisting development that
may not be traced to his ancestors and that inheritance will
not explain. This subconscious development he manifests in
materialized form as qualities of personality with which he
is born. One may be born a musician, for instance, yet find
nothing in ancestry to explain this ability. A financial
genius may be born to a blacksmith, and so while in less
exaggerated form, we each of us have in our character and in
our personality, something that is part of our individuality
alone and with which we are born into the world, but which
may not be traced to our ancestors. Just as there is
something in the nature of man that may not be accounted
for by earthly parentage, just so there is in his nature
a quality of self-consciousness with which he is born, yet
which may not find its origin in ancestry. It is my humble
opinion that another solution than that commonly called
evolution from the monkey explains the development of
intellect.
Man represents a phenomenized manifestation of this
unknowable force that includes in its growth, not only this
electronic field, but also every other dissociated section of
the universe. Whereas the animal represents the farthermost
point of growth that life may reach in this sectional
process, man represents the growth that may be obtained in
the phenomenized form of this section or world by the spirit
energy when it combines into one soul integration each and
every one of its dissociated universal elements. Man is
a representation of something which has been added to the
animal, and which something additional has been drawn from
other worlds or sections of space. He is not a phenomenized
manifestation of a portion of one kind of process of this
unknowable energy, but he is a phenomenized or materialized
manifestation of every portion or every elemental process
of its unknowable energy. The whole is the sum of its parts
and the whole of creation embraces the sum of all of its
dissociated manifestation that become the different sections
of space or different worlds of the universe. Adding
together those parts again, we have a duplication of the
whole, or, in other words, the soul of man is an exact image
or duplication of the central primal germ, because the soul
of man is composed of each and every one of the elements
or parts that are manifested by the central primal germ.
Just as a drop of ocean water contains in it every element
contained by the whole body of water, just so the internal
potential man contains within itself every element that
is contained by this whole homogeneous fourth dimensional
creative energy that is the essence of creation.
Now then, when this soul is born into this section of
space, it achieves a self-awareness of itself being the
intellectualized manifestation it becomes. Man is a
manifestation in phenomenized or materialized form of the
consciousness of the central primal germ in its elemental
unphenomenized or spiritual form. Just as the cosmic
viewpoint from its fourth dimensional plane and with its
fourth dimensional range of vision is capable of self
awareness of being the one homogeneous essence that composes
space, the different dissociations of which compose the
worlds that occupy space, just so in materialized form is
man self-conscious of himself being in phenomenized form
everything that this unknowable force functions to become in
this material world. For I say again, what this unknowable
functions to become in this section is but a phenomenized
or materialized manifestation of everything it is in its
unknowable elemental form.
Man is that development of the unknowable energy that in
materially manifested form cognizes three dimensionally.
He is himself that physical manifestation of the unknowable
creative energy that so functions as to experience the
outside world three dimensionally and these three dimensional
kinds of experiences he imposes upon the outside world. We
now approach the ultra-violet end of consciousness. An
inhabitant of Mars, for example, would be that development
of the creative energy that would view life from the Martian
viewpoint. Whatever kind of fourth dimensional consciousness
the Martian would have it would be that kind of an awareness
that would correspond to the environmental condition the
creative force acts to become in the Martial world or
field of consciousness.
We in the earth world, for example, know ourselves to be what
we materially are and cognize space to be three dimensional,
because the creative energy that composes ourselves and our
world acts to become a three dimensional intellectual man in
this earthly section. Our inner subconscious potential being
or soul self has gained and stored experiences it enjoyed
while evolving and developing in other sections of this
creative energy or in other worlds of the universe. It has
seen and it has known what this elemental creative energy is
from every viewpoint in every section of the universe. It
has taken from each section some development that each world
has to give, just as it takes from this world a potential
development of its own abilities that only intellectual
application upon matter may bring. It is that indwelling
internal subconscious part of man that, entering into this
section of creation, manifests materially as an intellectual
being in a flesh body. It has carried with it into this
sphere experiences it has stored in other spheres and,
likewise, will upon change from the externalized manifested
form of this world to the internal unknowable form of
the world of causes carry with it those experiences, that
development of individuality, and that development of
potential ability that it gains in this world. The
individual applying himself upon matter to build houses,
for example, would develop within himself the potential
ability to build. This latter ability he stores within his
subconscious self and becomes able to apply it, either upon
the one dimensional matter of this world to build houses,
or form a fourth dimensional cosmic viewpoint upon the
unknowable essence of matter to build creation. Those who
have changed or died, then, have found themselves to become a
self that embraces a cosmic fourth dimensional viewpoint and
that embraces not matter in its phenomenized three
dimensional form, but matter in its elemental changeless
fourth dimensional creative form. We likewise face that same
change, and our power to apply ourselves as a fourth
dimensional being when that change comes, depends upon two
things; first, upon our active applications in this world in
order that our indwelling, potential selves may achieve the
necessary development, and, secondly, the attitude of mind
with which we make such application. For example, two
individuals may play the same musical composition upon the
piano, Mendelssohn's "Spring Song", for instance; both would
play the piece according to one's set laws of music, yet each
in his plane would express his own individuality or attitude
of mind. One might express an ideal in the playing of the
piece, whereas the other might express an attitude of mind
that had to do more with an expression of desire, whether for
fame or love, or what not. The importance that the attitude
of mind plays in the development of our individuality which
survives bodily death may be found indicated in the Bible.
In the Book of Numbers, God instructed Moses to tell the
people just what ceremonies they should perform to physically
express their love, devotion, respect and worship for the
Lord. Later generations, however, perform these ceremonies
as mere superficial duties, and the Pharissaical attitude
all became such that it was deemed a sufficient indication
of love and worship for the Lord to perform the mere physical
act. Many of us attend church today feeling that the
physical act in itself is an expression of love and worship,
rather than understanding that in our every day life, whether
in church, in business, or in our home, that which we think
and do, expresses our loyalty or disloyalty in our minds to
the Creator, and the ideals He has given to the world through
His prophets and religious leaders of old. Naturally, then,
though the prophets God spoke to the people and told them
their incense burning and burned sacrifices should be done
away with, as they no longer meant any expression of mental
love and worship for Him.
Must we wait for death for proof of the nature and process
of this internal essence as it exists in its highest evolved
form in our own souls? Obviously we may not cognize it
objectively, for we may objectively cognize only from a three
dimensional point of view that is able to impose its own
sensuous qualities only upon the spirit energy in its
phenomenized form. The question is then, may we turn
inward to gain, even if yet from a sensuous viewpoint,
some understanding of internal man and his internal cosmic
relationship? If we may do this, then we may draw from our
own subconscious storehouse knowledge of its evolutionary
development, of its purpose, and establish thereby each for
our individual self proof or disproof of the premises I have
here advanced regarding evolution and creation. I believe I
am safe in saying that each and every one of us experiences
introspectively, although yet sensuously, this inner cosmic
man and could gain, if we would study and learn to understand
such experiences, consciousness of life as it exists from
the fourth dimensional viewpoint. Such knowledge could come
either from our own subconscious storehouse or from that
belonging to another individuality of the cosmic plane.
As telepathy exists between two individual minds of an
intellectual character, just so telepathic communications
may and do exist between the three dimensional intellectual
kind of consciousness and the fourth dimensional cosmic kind
of consciousness. A dog dreaming of a house would have to
change his two dimensional logic to understand the three
dimensional point of view to comprehend his vision. If the
dog could reason he would say, upon awakening from such a
dream, "I have had the most ridiculous kind of vision, in
which I saw four individual surfaces all hitched up together
to form some one impossible reality." Just so we have to
correct our third dimensional kind of cognizance would we
understand the fourth dimensional kind of cognizance of
the internal man, which latter viewpoint we may come to
understand through transcending the intellect, as we do at
times in vision, to gain a sensuous impression of the manner
in which the potential, internal soul self does cognize time
and space.
I was talking to an artist one time and he was firmly
convinced that certain inspirations that led him to paint
under certain conditions came as a result not of physical
reasoning, but rather of subconscious reasoning, the latter
based upon a subject induced into the subconscious by
physical consideration. He also felt sure in his mind that
certain of his ideas sprang suddenly into this mind either
from thought vibration taking their origin in other minds,
either intellectual in character or cosmic in character. In
order to get at the source of such ideas and inspirations
that come to all of us in any field of activity, we must give
consideration not only to intuitive feeling that prompts us
to do or think certain things through an urge not based upon
or reasoned out in terms of our three dimension logic, but
we must also understand the experiences of our transcended
intellect that are often classified as certain kinds of
dreams of visions. In these kinds of dreams or visions, we
become aware, even while asleep, or in concentration of a
process of subconscious reasoning being involuntarily carried
on that may give to our physical consciousness two things;
first, knowledge of this process of reasoning and of the
existence of this inner subliminal self that may do the
reasoning, as well as an understanding of the fourth
dimensional cosmic viewpoint of this inner subliminal self,
and, secondly, it may give us information regarding secular
affairs of our daily life that are reasoned from the deeper
insight of the internal subliminal self. The internal
subliminal soul self gains its information to reason with by
virtue of experiences it has stored in the earth world as a
flesh man and in other worlds as a cosmic entity. The fact
that this same process which permitted the soul entity to
enter the earth world the first time becoming a manifested
intellectual man may be repeated as often as necessary to
complete that development of potential abilities, one aspect
of which development is possible in this earth world alone,
or, in other words, that called by the name of re-incarnation
is a subject I have no time to discuss here. Suffice that
stored in the subconscious or soul mind is knowledge gained
by the soul or subliminal self in past experiences, which
include those gained not only in the today or yesterday, or
in this particular life, but there is retained there that
knowledge gained since it first dissociated itself from the
central primal germ. Its storehouse of knowledge has been,
is and ever will be augmented by the information it may gain
by attuning itself to the thought vibrations being radiated
by other minds. In dream or vision, we may become aware of
drawing from the storehouse of knowledge, whether it be that
of our own soul mind or of communicating with another mind
in process of manifestation, either in this place or in any
other.
I cannot stop here to refute either the pathological or
Freudian theory that all dreams or visions is the result
of either physical infirmities or suppressed desires. Some
undoubtedly are, but there are those, as James well points
out in this Varieties of Religious Experiences, that are the
result of another cause entirely. First, let me read you one
or two of such experiences that may prove for each individual
who does the experiencing the existence of the inner fourth
dimensional life and the part our own soul self plays in that
fourth dimensional environment, the part it has played in it
prior to birth, and the part it will play in it after death.
For it is true that the inner man seeks, through externalized
manifestation in this material world, to gain an additional
development of application that will enable him to so apply
himself as a fourth dimensional cosmic entity as to control
the universal forces that compose and make up the world of
causes. I quote from Ouspensky's "Tertium Organum":
"It was in the sea of Marmora, on a rainy day of winter, the
far-off high and rocky shores were of a pronounced violet
color of every shade, including the most tender, fading into
gray and blending with the gray sky. The sea was the color
of lead mixed with silver. I remember all these colors. The
steamer was going North. I remained at the rail looking at
the waves. The white crests of waves were running toward us.
A wave would run at the ship, raised as if desiring to hurl
its crest upon it, rushing up with a howl. The steamer
heeled, shuddered, and slowly straightened back; then from
afar a new wave came running. I watched the play of the
waves with the ship, and felt them draw me to themselves. It
was not at all that desire to jump down which one feels in
mountains, but something infinitely more subtle. The waves
were drawing my soul to themselves. And suddenly I felt that
it went to them. It lasted an instant, perhaps less than an
instant, but I entered into the waves and with them rushed
with a howl at the ship. And in that instant I BECAME ALL.
The waves - they were myself; the far violet mountains,
the wind, the clouds hurrying from the North, the great
steamship, heeling and rushing irresistibly forward - all
were myself. I sensed the enormous heavy body - MY BODY -
all its motions, shudderings, waverings and vibrations, fire,
pressure of steam and weight of engines, WERE INSIDE OF ME,
the unmerciful, and unyielding propelling screw which pushed
and pushed me forward, never for a moment releasing me, the
rudder which determined all my motion - all this was myself:
also two sailors... and the black snake of smoke coming in
clouds out of the funnel - all. It was an instant of unusual
freedom, joy and expansion. A second - and the spell charm
disappeared. It passed like a dream when one tries to
remember it. But the sensation was so powerful, so bright,
and so unusual that I was afraid to move and waited for it to
re-occur. But it did not return, and a moment later I could
not say that it had been - could not say whether it was a
reality or merely the thought that, looking, at the waves, it
might be so.
"Two years afterwards the yellowish waves of the Finnish Gulf
and a green sky gave me a taste of the same sensation, but
this time it was dissipated practically before it appeared."
I read again from the book "Varieties of Religious
Experiences" by William James. "Religious experience" is,
of course, another name for that experience gained by our
consciousness while it is observing the inside internal and
external creative force, that has evolved in our own selves
to achieve intelligence and from which we individually
draw in our introspective or religious experience knowledge
of the existence of and process of the internal cosmic or
spirit man:
"I was in perfect health: we were on our sixth day of
tramping and in good training. We had come the day before
many miles. I felt neither fatigue, hunger nor thirst, and
my state of mind was equally healthy. I had had at Forlaz
good news from home; I was subject to no anxiety, either
near or remote, for we had a good guide, and there was not
a shadow of uncertainty about the road we should follow. I
can best describe the condition in which I was by calling
it a state of equilibrium. When all at once I experienced a
feeling of being raised above myself, I felt the presence of
God - I tell of the things just as I was conscious of it -
as if His goodness and His power were penetrating me
altogether. The throb of emotion was so violent that I could
barely tell the boys to pass on and not wait for me. I then
sat down on a stone, unable to stand any longer, and my eyes
overflowed with tears. I thanked God that in the course of
my life he had taught me to know Him, that He sustained my
life and took pity both on the insignificant creature and on
the sinner that I was. I begged Him ardently that my life
might be consecrated to the doing of His will. I felt that
His reply, which was that I should do His will from day to
day, in humility and poverty, leaving Him, the Almighty God,
to be judge of whether I should sometime be called to bear
witness more conspicuously. Then slowly the ecstasy left my
heart; that is, I felt that God had withdrawn the communion
which He had granted, and I was able to walk on, but very
slowly, so strongly was I still possessed by the interior
emotion. Besides, I had wept uninterruptedly for several
minutes, my eyes were swollen, and I did not wish my
companions to see me. The state of ecstasy may have lasted
four or five minutes, although it seemed at the time to last
much longer. My comrades waited for me ten minutes at the
cross of Barine, but I took about twenty-five or thirty
minutes to join them, for as well as I can remember, they
said I had kept them back for about half an hour. The
impression had been so profound that in climbing slowly the
slope I asked myself if it were possible that Moses on Sinai
could have had a more intimate communication with God. I
think it well to add that in this ecstasy of mine, God had
neither form, color, odor or taste; moreover that the feeling
of His presence was accompanied by with no determinate
localization. It was rather as if my personality had been
transformed by the presence of a spiritual spirit. But the
more I seek words to express this intimate intercourse, the
more I feel the impossibility of describing the thing by any
of our usual images. At bottom the expression most apt to
render what I felt is this: God was present, though
invisible; He fell under no one of my senses, yet my
consciousness perceived Him."
An example of the telepathic subconscious communication may
be demonstrated in the vision a friend of our family had
after the death of her 12 year old child. The mother became
irreconcilable to her loss, and her condition became so
serious that the doctors began to fear for her life. One
morning several weeks later, she awakened a great deal more
cheerful, and from that time began to improve steadily in
health. Upon being asked the cause of this sudden change
in her mental attitude, she replied as follows: "One night,
several weeks after my child's death, I had a vision. I
beheld what seemed to be Heaven, and in it were a vast number
of children, all marching by with lighted candles in their
hands. I looked for my child and found her away at the end
of the procession, and also noted that her candle was unlit.
I spoke to my child in the dream and asked her why she was
away at the tail end of the procession and why her candle was
out, when all of the other children's candles were lit. My
child spoke to me, saying: 'Your tears drowned out the light
that would enable me to carry on for greater development, and
your sorrow holds me close to your plane and prevents me from
building up'."
Again, my wife in a dream several months ago beheld five
chrysanthemums on my father's grave, my father having died
some nine years ago. Exactly five weeks later, almost to
the day, I beheld my father while asleep and experienced
the following vision: "I beheld the earth as a plain and in
the background, a forest. In the forest were all manner of
beasts, and looming far in the distance were mountains and
minerals. In the foreground, by a wall of water, appeared a
human being. From out of the skies above, an angel descended
and pointed out the distant mountains, the forest of beasts,
and the human being, and swept them all with one stroke of
the arm as though to include them all together with space.
The picture gradually faded, and in its place there appeared
a violet colored light. I noted no particular beginning or
end or boundary line to the light, and in it there seemed to
be a meshwork of brilliantly colored elements. As the light
grew brighter, I fell on my knees and cried: 'I behold my
own soul; it is God.' Gradually the light dimmed and in
logical order the landscape scene appeared before me again."
So you see how I introspectively experienced for myself, or
in other words, gained an understanding of the truth of the
manner in which the fourth dimensional internal man cognizes
the elemental creative energy that composes the changeless
essence of space. Another such experience that I had at a
later date that established in my consciousness the truth
of the soul's evolutionary development through the various
dissociated sections of this creative energy, or of its
premortal and after death immortal experiences, in other
worlds, was as follows:
"I attended the grave of my grandmother, in company with my
mother. Studying the graves intently, I turned to my mother,
and asked: 'What has become of my grandmother? Where is she
and what is she now?' No reply came from my mother, but my
sensuous faculties detected the speaking of a voice, which,
of course, was the activity of my subconscious or potential
self replying to the question from its storehouse of retained
past experiences. It spoke as follows: 'She has become part
of the universal forces that compose a whole and harmonious
universe'."
So I might continue to give experience after experience,
rational, logical, specific and clear, had by myself
and others that yield to all who heed, a measure of
understanding, freedom and happiness not to be obtained or
possessed by the individual who lives the present minute as
though it were to last eternally. To link up the present
minute of our temporary objective viewpoint to that part of
our individuality that lives in the internal and external,
we must turn inward to study and to understand such
introspective experiences as may be gained through intuition,
or in vision and in dream. Now then, may we gain that
aid and that comfort that prepares us for the changes and
vicissitudes of life and enables us to enjoy a comprehension
of the purpose, and know the answer to all of life's problems
and hardships. As we develop in understanding of our
introspective experiences, so we develop in the ability to
draw from our internal selves greater aid in every phase of
our life, whether secular, spiritual, mental or physical.
These kinds of visions, intuitions, or what Bergson calls
"experiences of the transcended intellect," are revelations
to our physical consciousness of knowledge stored in and
retained by our indwelling soul self. It gained this
knowledge in experiences throughout its own past history as
manifestations of that kind that are adaptable to the various
spheres, worlds or sections of space that it inhabited,
whether this world or any other. They are the result of our
seeking from the internal, real man that which we ask it to
reveal. It must be sought and sought from this source by
the individual, if the subconscious door to the soul is to
be opened, in order that the individual may gain for his
individual self alone some understanding of that which he may
introspectively, even if yet sensuously, experience as being
the internal potential soul self, and, likewise, gain some
comprehension of the fourth dimensional viewpoint of the
soul self.
Before I conclude, let me give you, my friends, one example,
among many that I could give, of how such introspective
experiences emanating from the internal godly part of
ourselves are gained through telepathic communication with
other cosmic intelligences may aid us in our secular life.
My wife, in the eighth month of pregnancy, developed a severe
cold which threatened disastrous effects upon the child she
was carrying. After trying many prescriptions and remedies,
and each one failing to stop the dangerous cough, she
experienced the following vision: Her mother appeared to her
and told her that if she would beat the white of an egg and
add a little lemon and sugar and take this mixture, her cough
would disappear. Upon awakening, she prepared the mixture
and took three doses. The cough disappeared, with the final
result that a mighty fine baby boy was born.
This brings me finally to a vision of mine in which I
beheld my wife's mother (now deceased some two years). She
explained to me that the three elements of happiness were
love, peace and comfort. We cannot attain true peace of mind
unless within our consciousness we can find some answer to
the trials and tribulations and to the pitfalls that confront
each and every one of us. We cannot gain the happiness that
love in its larger sense may bring us unless we understand
love to be the manifesting life force that expresses itself
in terms of Nature's beauty, in the song of the bird, or its
care of the young, or in the companionship to itself it has
evolved in man. We cannot gain the truest comfort from even
the material necessities and luxuries of life, unless we
understand that these comforts are the merited reward for a
service rendered humanity and civilization, even as the force
of life itself, or God, merits our love as a reward for the
labor and service He has rendered in evolving from His own
creation, our souls. My message to you, my friends, is
that each of us individually for ourselves may gain that
experience which emanates from within our own selves that may
teach us the meaning of life's expression in terms of love,
peace and comfort, which knowledge brings us the happiness of
realizing our sonship, not only of man but to God.
- END -
Edgar Cayce Readings © 1971, 1993, 1994, 1995 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation