of Nod (Afghanistan) and Eden (Iraq), and struggling over the Holy City of Jerusalem? Yet these involvements indicate that we are on our return path whence we came.
This acquired outer self has become so dominant that we assume it to be our whole being—who we feel we are—the rest of our being having fallen into our unconsciousness.
Edgar Cayce often addressed the issue of our outer, earthly self. In the following record, a young man asked Cayce how he might receive guidance from higher forces while in the body.
Q: How can [this] body become aware of the higher forces in himself as a guidance?
A: Seeing it, close self—mind, eyes, ears—to the outside world; recognizing as a fact that, “If I would know, if I would be, if I would comprehend, I must open my inner self—not the outer self—to those influences.” And then the awareness flows in.
EC 257–170
Here is another of Cayce’s comments on this aspect of our being:
Let the light that shines without be lighted by that light which is created from within, making the activities of the inner self and the outer self in accord.
EC 262–40; italics mine
Since this is such a physical level of our being, the incarnate portion, it is also important to consider the body’s effect on our being. Cayce was very much aware of this, and as a holistic health resource, he (named “the father of holistic medicine” by the American Holistic Medical Association) often associated bodily conditions with feelings of separation between the outer self and the inner self. Here’s one example:
The sympathetic system has been under such strains that all along those centers where there are particular centralization between the cerebrospinal and sympathetic system, makes for those of heaviness to the body, depressions in the feelings, as of far away feelings, as separations at times between the outer self and the inner self . . . as if the heart and lungs were too full for the body, heaviness in the lower portion of the torso, the feet feel as if they would drag, stretchy feelings through the lower portion of the limbs themselves. These are rather indications than causes. These are reflexes from an overtaxed mental and physical being, with improper nourishment or sustenance coming from the blood supply to bring buoyancy to the whole physical being; the brain feeling at times dull, as if unable to think farther on, as if it would stop. This all from the sympathetic system, and needs rather that of the resuscitation of elements in the physical being as would bring to the body those of renewed energies that would supply the whole system.”
EC 4393–1
Our outer being, this Living Being, is very much affected by the body’s condition and its physical surroundings. The mental portion inside the body needs the body to be properly assimilating nutrients and eliminating toxins that build up. Our outer being also needs to turn within to find the true light, love, and life. However, the inner path is often perplexing to the outer self. The inner path does not fit within the three-dimensional model of life. Let’s consider this further.
To help us grasp the odd, inner way to enlightenment and spiritual breakthrough, Cayce recommended reading Tertium Organum by Ouspensky. Among other things in this text, Ouspensky explains that a dimensional breakthrough requires an altered state of consciousness, because the next dimension does not exist in the present dimension. For example, imagine a one-dimensional being searching for the second dimension. This being may run back and forth on its single plane of existence and not find the second plane. The second dimension is perpendicular to its entire reality. It is totally alien to its current plane of existence. To clarify, imagine the first dimension as a single line —. The second dimension would be a perpendicular line to that line
This brings us to our three-dimensional selves and our search for higher dimensions beyond our reality. We now understand that the higher dimensions are not in the third dimension. We must experience an altered state of perception. Nothing in the projected, three-dimensional reality will lead us to the fourth dimension. What is more perpendicular to an object-oriented being than venturing within itself? We must move from objects to thoughts and mental images within our minds. These are the “things” of the next dimension. Consider that they have no physical form, no projected shape, yet they have substance. Their form is not matter but the energetics of thoughts, imagery, and feelings are very real to us. It is not a physical cube but the thought form and feeling of it that is fourth-dimensional.
Grandmother’s body may have died, but her deeper mind and core energetics live on; thus we can feel her, even see her with our deeper, dreaming mind’s eye.
Cayce could not always distinguish thoughts from actions in the astral accounts of persons he was giving readings for. That is, he was not always able to determine whether the person had actually done something or just thought about doing it, because thoughts are as real as actions in the higher dimensions he was attuned to!
Thoughts are things, and may be miracles or crimes in action.
EC 105–2
Each thought, as things, has its seed, and if planted, or when sown in one or another ground, brings its own fruit; for thoughts are things, and as their currents run must bring their own seed.
EC 288–29
We find these same teachings in Scripture:
For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
Proverbs 23:7
The inner dimensions are as real and potent as the outer. The outer self must seek within to know these higher dimensions. This naturally leads us to the next level of our being: the soul mind.
Soul Mind (Ruach)
Our Soul Mind—Ruach (from ruah, for wind or air)—is the moral consciousness that may subdue the urges and patterns of the Living Being. Here we have the ability to distinguish between good and evil, to subdue the most powerful instinctual urges for reasons higher than the gratification of these urges. This is the discerning mind and conscience. It is the involved mind that analyzes and correlates desires and measures them against the entity’s deepest ideals. It is the expressed breath or “wind” of the glassblower. It is with us inside this projected experience (the glass).
This is also the portion of us that is the dreamer. When we are in this portion, we feel perfectly comfortable. We are ourselves. However, there is a subtle yet opaque veil separating this deeper mind from the outer consciousness. We know these two aspects of ourselves well. For example, each of us has had the experience of waking from an attention-getting dream, only to notice that the bladder is full, so we get up to empty the bladder, then return to the bed to review the dream—but it’s gone! We have none of the content of the dream that so captured our attention just moments ago. How is this possible? It is possible because we have just experienced these two parts of ourselves: the Soul Mind, which dreamed the dream, and the Living Being, which accommodated the full bladder but did not dream the dream. So subtle is the veil between these two
