Get to Know Your Immortal, Eternal Self

By John Van Auken

The near-death experiences that have been published over the past 40 years reveal that we do indeed survive the death of our physical body, thus we are going to be with our nonphysical self for a very, very, long while. It behooves us to get to know our immortal, eternal self and our relationship to God or the Universal Consciousness within which we exist.

Edgar Cayce’s readings agree. Consider these:

“Don’t put the material [things] first, for you have to live with yourself a long, long while! Become acquainted with yourself. Know yourself and the relationship to the Creative Forces.” (3484-1)

“The purpose [of life] is that you might know yourself to be yourself, and yet one with the Creative Forces, or God.” (2030-1)

Clearly Cayce would have us seeking to know our deeper selves and our relationship to God because, despite the appearances to the contrary, we are not simply who we think we are, and we will have to live with that other portion of ourselves for eternity. Yikes! The question quickly becomes: How do we do this?

Some of Cayce’s readings recommended the writings of esoteric teacher and author Peter Ouspensky, and here are some key points as expressed in his books The Psychology of Man’s Possible Evolution and Tertium Organum:

“The first step in acquiring consciousness is the realization that we are not conscious. It is an illusion that we are awake. The worst of our illusions are the wrong ideas among which we live and which govern our lives. If we could change our attitude towards these wrong ideas and understand what they are, this in itself would be a great change and would immediately change other things. The aim is to reach higher states of consciousness and to be able to work with higher centers. When one realizes one is asleep, at that moment one is already half-awake.”

“We’re talking about a new level of consciousness, a Cosmic Consciousness. Cosmic consciousness is holistic. It is existing beyond and within all dimensions. It is not that the mind is at some higher place or some distant place or in the past lives or future lives. It is omnipresent and omniscient [all-knowing]. In other words, it is infinitely aware in all places at all times. And this is not a wiser human. It is a different human. It is a distinctly different consciousness altogether.”

Edgar Cayce was a prototype of this new cosmic-conscious being. This is why sensory perception goes beyond our current five senses. Edgar Cayce had perception beyond the five we currently use. He saw and heard with different eyes and ears—the inner mind’s eyes (clairvoyance) and inner mind’s ears (clairaudience). He could see into the future and the past. His body could be in one location while another portion of his being could be far, far away.

Here are some Cayce insights into our higher nature:

“Q: What is this spirit entity in the body, Morton Blumenthal, and how may he develop it in the right direction? “A: This is only the portion that develops other than in earth’s plane. Spirit entity. For soul’s development is in the earth’s plane—the spirit entity in the spirit plane…

The spirit entity is a thing apart from any earthly connection in sleep ... the earthly, or material consciousness is ever tempered with material conditions; [while] the superconsciousness, the consciousness between soul and spirit ...partakes of the spiritual forces principally. In consciousness we find only projections of subconscious and superconscious, which conditions project themselves in dreams [and] visions, unless [one] enters into the superconscious forces. (900-16)

So how do we enter into our super-consciousness? Edgar Cayce also provided that information: One must budget time for this; feed the mind and soul as one does the body; exercise and train the mind and soul as one does the body; experience the other dimensions of consciousness beyond the body; come to know the True Self (the little I AM) within the Great I AM; and practice the Fruits of the Spirit daily.

“Do that which is good, for there has been given in the consciousness of all, the Fruits of the Spirit: Fellowship, kindness, gentleness, patience, long-suffering, love; these be the Fruits of the Spirit. Against such there is no law. Doubt, fear, avarice, greed, selfishness, self-will; these are the fruits of the evil forces. Against such there is a law… Meditate on the Fruits of the Spirit in the inner secrets of the consciousness, and the cells in the body become aware of the awakening of the life in their activity through the body. In the mind, the cells of the mind become aware of the life in the Spirit. The spirit of life makes not afraid. Then, know the way; for those that seek may find.” (5752-3)

Let’s awaken to our celestial, cosmic consciousness and live this incarnation more from that level of awareness and love than our so-familiar materialistic awareness, because it is this part of ourselves that we are going to have to live with for a very, very long time.

John Van Auken is a director at Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E., and is one of the organization’s most popular speakers, traveling throughout the U.S. and abroad to address audiences on the body-mind-spirit topics found in the Edgar Cayce readings. He is an acknowledged expert on the Cayce readings, the Bible, ancient prophecies, world religions, meditation, and ancient Egypt. He writes Venture Inward's Ancient Mysteries column and is the author of several books, including From Karma to Grace and Edgar Cayce and the Kabbalah.