Edgar Cayce's Twelve Lessons in Personal Spirituality. Kevin J Todeschi

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      Author’s Note

      The nature of our personal belief systems is appropriately described in the well-known story of the blind men and the elephant. Five blind men came upon an elephant in the jungle. One touched up against the creature’s side, another took hold of its tail, the third felt its trunk, another grabbed an ear, and the fifth leaned against its leg. Each of the blind men took it upon themselves to describe the true nature of the elephant to the others. The first said, “The truth of the elephant is that he is very much like a wall.” The second, who held the tail, said, “No, you are wrong, the elephant is like a rope.” The third felt the skin of the creature’s trunk and likened it to a snake. The fourth could not believe the erroneous perceptions of the other three and shook the elephant’s ear as he spoke, “Are you all fools? The elephant is like a giant leaf!” And the fifth cried out for each of the others to listen to him as he pounded the elephant’s leg for emphasis, “How can you be so wrong, for the truth of the elephant is he is much like a tree!?”

      In varying degrees, each of us is like one of these five characters. Rather than standing back and becoming receptive to the possibility that there is much more to the elephant than we have currently come to grips with, we often become all the more focused on the reality of our individual perceptions. In an attempt to understand our truth, too often we put boundaries around what we believe in order to come to grips with it. Unfortunately, this approach blinds us to the insights and information that have become true for someone else—the very insights that might lead us even further along our own path and individual search for meaning.

      Hopefully, a day will come in the not-too-distant future when each of us becomes a little more receptive to looking at the entire elephant.

      Notes about the Edgar Cayce readings:

      The Edgar Cayce readings are indexed by case number. For example, reading #262-3 refers to the third reading given in a series to case #262 (which was the original study group).

      No attempt has been made to alter the language of the readings to be—what in common parlance is termed—“politically correct.” Therefore, when using such terminology as “the nature of man,” Cayce is not referring to gender; instead, the term would apply to all of humankind. In addition, the readings themselves appear to be rich with Christian terminology. However, Cayce often used terms and phrases that do not necessarily equate with their common usage. These differences are explained within the text. For example, “the Christ” can refer to Jesus, but it is also a pattern of consciousness which is the birthright of every soul—regardless of one’s religious denomination.