Beyond Death. Edgar Cayce

then is life? As it has been given, in Him we live and move and have our being. Then He, God, is! Or Life in all of its phases, its expressions, is a manifestation of that force or power we call God, or that is called God.

      Then Life is continuous. For that force, that power which has brought the earth, the universe and all the influences in same into being, is a continuous thing—is a first premise.

      All glory, all honor then, is due that creative force that may be manifested in our experiences as individuals through the manner in which we deal with our fellow man!

      Then we say, when our loved ones, our heart’s desires are taken from us, in what are we to believe?

      This we find is only answered in that which has been given as His promise, that God hath not willed that any soul should perish but hath with every temptation, every trial, every disappointment made a way of escape or for correcting same. It is not a way of justification only, as by faith, but a way to know, to realize that in these disappointments, separations, there comes the assurance that He cares!

      For to be absent from the body is to be present with that consciousness that we, as an individual, have worshiped as our God! For as we do it unto the least of our brethren, our associates, our acquaintance, our servants day by day, so we do unto our Maker!

      What is the purpose then, we ask, for our entering into this vale, or experience, or awareness, where disappointments, fears, trials of body and of mind appear to mount above all of the glories that we may see?

      In the beginning, when there was the creating, or the calling of individual entities into being, we were made to be the companions with the Father-God.

      Now flesh and blood may not inherit eternal life; only the spirit, only the purpose, only the desire may inherit same.

      Then that error in individual activity—not of another but of ourselves, individually—separated us from that awareness.

      Hence God prepared the way through flesh whereby all phases of spirit, mind and body might express.

      The earth then is a three-dimensional, a three-phase or three-manner expression. Just as the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit are one. So are our body, mind and soul one—in Him.

      Now we have seen, we have heard, we know that the Son represents or signifies the Mind.

      He, the Son, was in the earth-earthy even as we—and yet is of the Godhead.

      Hence the Mind is both material and spiritual, and taketh hold on that which is its environ, its want, in our experiences.

      Then Mind, as He, was the Word—and dwelt among men; and we beheld Him as the face of the Father.

      So is our mind made, so does our mind conceive—even as He; and is the Builder.

      Then that our mind dwells upon, that our mind feeds upon, that do we supply to our body—yes, to our soul!

      Hence we find all of these are the background, as it were, for the interpreting of our experience, of our sojourns in the earth.

      For the astrological or the relative position of the earth (our immediate home) is not the center of the universe, is not the center of our thought; but the kingdom of the Father or the kingdom of Heaven is within! Why? Because our mind, the Son, is within us.

      Then with that consciousness of His awareness, we may know even as He has given, “Ye abide in me, as I in the Father—I will come and abide with thee.”

      In that consciousness, then, the purposes for which each soul enters materiality are that it may become aware of its relationships to the Creative Forces or God; by the material manifestation of the things thought, said, done, in relation to its fellow man!

      As the earth then occupies its three-dimensional phase of experience in our own solar system, and as each of those companions that are about the solar system represents as it were one of the phases of our conscience—the elements of our understanding—or our senses; then they each in their place, in their plane, bear a relationship to us, even as our desires for physical sustenance; that is: foods for the body; with all of the attributes, all of the abilities to take that we feed upon and turn it into elements for our body.

      All of the elements are gathered from that upon which we have fed to build blood, bone, hair, nails; the sight, the hearing, the touching, the feelings, the expressions.

      Why? Because these are quickened by the presence of the spirit of the Creative force (within).

      So our mind, with its attributes, gathers from that upon which we feed in our mental self; forming our concepts of our relationship with those things that are contrarywise to His biddings or in line with that Law which is all-inclusive; that is, the love of the Father, with our mind, our body, our soul, and our neighbor as self.

      Then all of these influences astrological (as known or called) from without, bear witness—or are as innate influences upon our activity, our sojourn through any given experience. Not because we were born with the sun in this sign or that, nor because Jupiter or Mercury or Saturn or Uranus or Mars was rising or setting, but rather:

      Because we were made for the purpose of being companions with Him, a little lower than the angels who behold His face ever yet as heirs, as joint heirs with Him who is the Savior, the Way, then we have brought these about because of our activities through our experiences in those realms! Hence they bear witness by being in certain positions—because of our activity, our sojourn in those environs, in relationships to the universal forces of activity.

      Hence they bear witness of certain urges in us, not beyond our will but controlled by our will!

      For as was given of old, there is each day set before us life and death, good and evil. We choose because of our natures. If our will were broken, if we were commanded to do this or that, or to become as an automaton, our individuality then would be lost and we would only be as in Him without conscience—conscience—(consciousness) of being one with Him; with the abilities to choose for self!

      For we can, as God, say Yea to this, Nay to that; we can order this or the other in our experience, by the very gifts that have been given or appointed unto our keeping. For we are indeed as laborers, co-laborers in the vineyard of the Lord—or of they that are fearful of His coming.

      And we choose each day whom we will serve! And by the records in time and space, as we have moved through the realms of His kingdom, we have left our mark upon same.

      Then they influence us, either directly or indirectly, in the manner as we have declared ourselves in favor of this or that influence in our material experience. And by the casting of our lot in this or that direction, we bring into our experience the influence in that manner.

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      God’s Other Door

       Reading 1472-2

       Q: Does death instantly end all feeling in the physical body? If not, how long can it feel?

      A: This would be such a problem; dependent upon the character of which unconsciousness is produced to the physical reaction—or the manner in which the consciousness has been trained.

      Death—as commonly spoken of—is only passing through God’s other door. That there is continued consciousness is evidenced, ever, by the associations of influences, the abilities of entities to project or to make those impressions upon the consciousness of sensitives or the like.

      As to how long—many an individual has remained in that called death for what ye call years without realizing it was dead!

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