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Foreword

My coauthor, Edgar Cayce, passed away some years ago, but his enlightened contribution toward a greater understanding of meditation, both in concept and technique, continues strong today. He may be better known for his insights into holistic medicine and is credited by the Journal of the American Medical Association as the “father of the holistic movement” in America. He is also known for his call for more study into the purpose and process of dreaming, the need for a greater understanding of ancient civilizations, and improved harmony with the ecosystem we live in. But without a doubt, one of his most significant contributions came with his insistence that all people could enjoy improved personal spirituality and mental enlightenment by adding meditation to their daily lives.

I have worked with his meditation insights and instructions for nearly forty years and have taught and written about them for thirty years.

Edgar Cayce said: “There are definite conditions that arise from within the inner person when an individual enters into true or deep meditation. A physical condition happens, a physical activity takes place! Acting through what? Through that humanity has chosen to call the imaginative or the impulsive, and the sources of impulse are aroused by the shutting out of thought pertaining to activities of the carnal forces of a person. Changes naturally take place when there is the arousing of that stimuli within the individual that has within it the seat of the soul’s dwelling, within the individual body of the person, and then this partakes of the individuality [the soul] rather than the personality.” (281-13)

All of my coauthor’s insights were dictated to his stenographer while he was in a deep, meditative state of consciousness. She filed them using a numbering system. Each discourse was given a number, usually associated with the person or group requesting the information, followed by a dash number that indicated how many discourses they had received. For example, the comment quoted above was given to a group seeking to improve their spiritual healing abilities. This group was given the number 281, and the discourse above was their thirteenth, thus the filing number 281-13.*

His stenographer was often surprised that Cayce’s mind could dictate his comments and at the same time correct her shorthand spelling or clarify some detail for her! It was as if his mind were aware of what she was taking down in shorthand and of her thoughts about the content.

Cayce himself is a wonderful example of how profoundly meditation can help us and those we share our lives with.

In this latest book, Edgar Cayce and I present both the spirit and the mechanism for effective and relevant meditation in daily life. We cover classical and modern concepts and techniques, the fundamentals and advanced nuances, and provide perspectives and tips on both the method and the experience.

John Van Auken, Director

Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc.

*Since the language of the Cayce discourses is somewhat similar to the language of the King James Bible, I have slightly paraphrased some of the quotes for clarity.