Children Handbook

For the Love of Children
A Handbook
Concepts & Tools for Guiding Children
Based on the Edgar Cayce Readings

Compiled by the A.R.E. Youth and Family Staff

Chapter 2

Since the spiritual dimension was of such primary importance in all the Cayce readings, it is not surprising that there were frequent suggestions made to individuals that they needed to be more in touch with, or in tune with, their spiritual Source. Such contact brings growing peace, greater awareness of the Creative Forces, and gradual awakening of the soul.

The Wonder of Nature

The readings indicated that close association with nature and attunement to the forces at work within it would allow the same beauty and unfoldment to enter the soul, and this avenue was particularly recommended for children. Using whatever natural settings and opportunities are around you already, take time to walk, to stop silently, to “feel” the spiritual manifestations in nature. This activity, done often, makes gradually for a greater and greater sense of the mood in the setting and enables both parent and child to attune to, or “be in accord” with, the God that is within both nature and the self. Do not ask your child to verbalize his or her response at the time (unless it is given spontaneously), but look for small gradual changes or expressions that indicate an inner awareness is taking place over a period of weeks or months.

The following are a few suggestions for enjoying and sharing the wonder of nature.

Take walks in various natural environments: in a pine forest, near moving water (a stream, river), by large bodies of water (especially the ocean).
Experience some of the manifestations of nature: rain, fog, snow, wind, storm.
Lie down and observe sky, clouds, stars, trees.
Close your eyes and listen for nature’s sounds in different places.
Take a walk in the same places in different seasons.
Watch a sunset or a sunrise.
Observe a bird feeder (Make one!), baby birds in a nest (without disturbing them), or animals on their ;natural trails in the woods. (Sit quietly beside a trail.)
Smell and touch various plants in a garden with your eyes closed.
Hold baby animals (kitten, chick, hamster, etc.).
Make and give items from nature (potpourri, herb pillows, mixed bird seed).
Use other suggestions that cam assist you in sharing nature with children.

Prayer and Meditation

Prayer and meditation were mentioned often in the Cayce readings; in fact an entire chapter on prayer and meditation in A Search For God (A.R.E. study group text) came from the readings. Prayer was seen as a conscious turning of the mind to the God Force, while meditation was defined as listening to the God Force within. Children as young as four and six years old were given suggested affirmations for meditation, often in conjunction with massage, vibration, or suggestive therapeutics.

The following are general suggestions for using prayer and meditation with children.

Meditate daily yourself.
Allow a quiet time for each child daily. This can include emptying out worries briefly, prayer, and/or meditation.
Practice “inside listening” by first using a short affirmation spoken aloud and then letting your child hear it within the self.
Meditate with your child. (Choose an affirmation keyed to the child’s or family’s ideal; have a “cleansing” routine of handwashing, etc.; sit or lie in a comfortable position with clothing loose; do head and neck exercises if desired; breathe in through left nostril and out through mouth, then in through right nostril and out through mouth; play low music if desired; repeat the chosen affirmation aloud, and have the child repeat it and hear it with his/her “inside” voice and ears; close with prayer.)
Have a family/group prayer or meditation time.
Practice with your child the surrounding of the self with God’s light.
Pray daily yourself (in thanksgiving, awe and love; taking your needs, requests, and problems to God; praying for your child).
Help your child begin to “send thoughts” to God both at regular times and spontaneously.
Give small spontaneous prayers yourself (silently or out loud) at times when you feel a special outpouring of love or thanks or need for Him.
Do a kind deed with your child for someone else, as a silent prayer of “doingness.”
Have a special place for quietness and privacy in your home, with symbols of God’s love and peace.
Use other suggestions from books like Deborah Rozman’s Meditating with Children and Meditation for Children.

Dreams

Many of Edgar Cayce’s readings for children advised working with their dreams. The readings viewed dreams as a natural experience, a gift of God for understanding the self, finding answers, discovering one’s purpose in life, and most important of all, awakening the spiritual consciousness. Parents were advised to show interest in their child’s dreams, listen to them without judgment (assuming the child’s point of view in hearing them), and view them in the context of the child’s spiritual ideal to help the child deal with them in a creative and spiritual manner.

The following are suggestions for helping your child work with his/her dreams.

Remember your own dreams, write them down, and use them for understanding and help.
Encourage, listen to, and accept with interest your child’s dreams.
Suggest that dreams are messages from within. Let your child tell you how a dream made her/him feel.
Write down your child’s dreams. Review the log occasionally for insight. Your child may want to read the log years later when s/he is older.
Check for any precognitive dreams. Let your child know the possibility of learning about a future event through dreams.
Keep a family dream book.
If nightmares are relayed, help the child to recreate the dream and come to a satisfactory conclusion; e.g., if a child dreams of an uncontrollable fire, let him watch the fire get small enough to toast a marshmallow over it.
Have a special morning time for remembering and telling dreams (at breakfast, etc.)
Teach your child to use the pre-sleep suggestion, “I will remember my dreams.”
Help your child act on his/her dreams in a manner that is in keeping with her/his ideal. Often following through on a dream in a physical way (e.g., planting a garden if she/he dreamed about doing that) will help give greater awareness of the meaning and bring the reality further into the experience of the self.
Give thanks for dreams!

Intuition and Psychic Awareness

On a number of occasions parents asked Edgar Cayce for information concerning the psychic abilities of their children, how they could be developed, and what roles the parents should play with regard to such abilities. The following are suggestions from the readings along these lines:

Pay special attention to your own spiritual life so that you may be a suitable channel for training, in accord with whatever is most helpful for your child’s development spiritually.
Allow the visions, experiences, intuitive feelings to be expressed, and show normal interest in them as in any other development in your child.
Acknowledge the infinite Source of the experience; teach your child to commune with the Source and to use the information constructively.
Keep a record of the experiences.
Find and share stories of other children and adults who have psychic abilities.
Give your child contact with other children who are open to the possibility of psychic abilities.
Especially emphasize the spiritual aspects of lift in your home and in the guidance of your child: ideals and their practical application, times for prayer and meditation, spiritual instructions in suggestion and the use of the imagination, reading of and guidance from the Bible and its sources, ways of understanding the sources of information.
Be sure your child has plenty of opportunities to participate in right-brain oriented activities (nature, color, art, music, movement), those that are creative and imaginative–along with all the other normal life experiences.
Make sure that a natural, balanced diet is part of your child’s lifestyle.
Keep true balance in everything, in all your child’s activities, with remembrance of the spiritual Source.

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