them a few weeks later. Look for themes, situations, emotions, and symbols that are repetitive. One individual found that her cat, which she dearly loved, frequently appeared in dreams that dealt with personal relationships; another discovered that a watch or a clock was a recurring symbol in precognitive dreams about his personal future. These types of personal insights are only possible with ongoing practice.”
Above all—hold to your ideal
“In Cayce's understanding of dreams,” says Bro, “a comparison of the dreamer's life with his ideal was occurring in dreams almost every night, however symbolically portrayed, or however small the action examined…. In [Cayce's] view, the individual's actions of the previous day, and of the current period of his life, are compared for him each night in sleep with his own deepest ideals. Accordingly, one who awakens grumpy and unrested ought to look into his life, as well as his dreams. And one who awakens in a clear and peaceful frame of mind may be sure that when he recalls his dreams they will not show him in serious inner conflict….
“Further, the remembered dream needs to be used, if possible…. The subconscious is like a woodland spring to be dipped out and kept flowing, if it is best used. The dreamer may focus on some portion of the dream that strongly appeals to him, provided it is in keeping with his inmost ideal. For dreams, said Cayce, ‘are visions that can be crystallized.’ In dreams the real hopes and desires of the person, not idle wishes alone, are given body and force in the individual….
“'Study self, study self,’ was Cayce's first counsel on training to interpret dreams. He told people to search out memories, to list their working ideals in columns (physical, mental, spiritual), to decide what they honored in others and to compare this with themselves, to check their self-perception against what others perceived in them…. [For] every person who seeks to grow, whether in dreams or awake, must find and assess his own working ideals…. Once one clarifies his own deepest ideal, however hard to word and to picture, he must begin lining up his psyche in harmony with it, or his dreams will show him in constant conflict with himself….
“Part of lining up the psyche with its ideal, and ultimately with its Maker, is laying aside fear of past mistakes. Cayce was firm about this, resisting self-condemnation whenever he saw it, and insisting that guilt be replaced with present action. In one of his more startling sayings, he told a dreamer with unpleasant memories of sexual indulgence at the expense of the women in his life that ‘no condition is ever lost.’ What-ever the failing, even the cruelty, if the dreamer puts his life squarely in the hands of the best he knows, he will find his bitter fruits being turned, over the years, to the wine of understanding for others. What has been one's 'stumbling-block,’ he often said, can be made his very 'stepping-stone’ towards love and aid to others, because of deep sensitizing action—provided that the psyche is oriented to allow this transmutation to occur.”
Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you
Bro leaves us with this final thought:
“One does not need to invent his existence. He has only to ‘use what is in hand’ and ‘the next will be supplied.’ For there are two helping forces always at work to guide the unfolding and spending of a human life.
“One force is a person's own original spark of creative energy, a force placed in him at creation, and bearing a potential for love and creativity as great as that of the Creator Itself. The other is a spirit “abroad in the universe” of helpfulness, of unending creativity, kindness, and wisdom…. This other force will 'seek its own’ within the individual when allowed to do so, and magnify whatever is good within the person.
“In Cayce's view, dreams are of prime importance for the meeting of the ultimate creative force of a person with that other force which ever seeks to help him.”
Kristie E. Knutson, Editor
Editor's Note: In this book, the Editor's comments are indicated by the phrase Editor's Note.
In addition, you will find the text of some readings repeated in more than one chapter, examples of the richness and depth of the Cayce readings, and how they can be explored and understood in many different contexts.
Cayce's entire collection of readings is available on CD-ROM from the A.R.E., so even though a referenced reading may not be found in this book, they have been included for any future research.
1
Cayce on Sleep and Dreams
Reading 3744-5
Editor's Note: The 3744 readings form a series of readings given for the specific purpose of dealing with such metaphysical topics as the nature of the mind; the soul; life after death; and so on.
(Q) What is a dream?
(A) There are many various kinds of manifestations that come to an animate object, or being; that is in the physical plane of man, which the human family term a dream.
Some are produced by suggestions as reach the consciousness of the physical, through the various forms and manners as these.
When the physical has laid aside the conscious in that region called sleep, or slumber, when those forces through which the spirit and soul has manifested itself come, and are reenacted before or through or by this soul and spirit force, when such an action is of such a nature as to make or bring back impressions to the conscious mind in the earth or material plane, it is termed a dream.
This may be enacted by those forces that are taken into the system, and in the action of digestion that takes place under the guidance of subconscious forces, become a part of that force through which the spirit and soul of that entity passed at such time. Such manifestations are termed or called nightmares, or the abnormal manifestations on the physical plane of these forces.
In the normal force of dreams are enacted those forces that may be the fore-shadow of condition, with the comparison by soul and spirit forces of the condition in various spheres through which this soul and spirit of the given entity has passed in its evolution to the present sphere. In this age, at present, 1923, there is not sufficient credence given dreams; for the best development of the human family is to give the greater increase in knowledge of the subconscious, soul or spirit world. This is a dream.
(Q) How should dreams be interpreted?
(A) Depending upon the physical condition of the entity and that which produces or brings the dream to that body's forces.
The better definition of how the interpretation may be best is this: Correlate those Truths that are enacted in each and every dream that becomes a part of this, or the entity of the individual, and use such to the better developing, ever remembering develop means going toward the higher forces, or the Creator.
Reading 853-8
(Q) Do I actually leave my body at times, as has been indicated, and go to different places?
(A) You do.
(Q) For what purpose, and how can I develop and use this power constructively?
