Talk given by Edgar Cayce
to Norfolk Study Group Open Meeting
February 6th, 1933

It is rather hard to describe something which has become so much a part of me - almost like trying to describe what my face looks like. I can show you, but I can't tell you. I might tell you some of my experiences and thoughts concerning the readings; but as to what a reading is I can only tell you what others have said about them and what has come to me as I have studied the effect created in the minds of those receiving readings.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that I have been in the unconscious state (during which the readings are given) perhaps ten thousand times in the last thirty-one years; yet I myself have never heard a single reading. How can I describe one to you?

Many people who have never heard a reading have asked me just how I knew I could give one. I never did know it - don't know it yet - except by taking another person's word for it. The first step in giving a readings is this: I loosen my clothes - my shoelaces, my necktie, my shirtcuffs, and my belt - in order to have a perfectly free-flowing circulation. Then I lie down on the couch in my office. If the reading is to be a physical one, I lie with my head to the south and my feet to the north. If it is to be a life reading, it is just the opposite: my feet are to the south, my head to the north. the reason for this difference in "polarization," as the readings themselves call it, I do not know. Once lying comfortably, I put both hands up to my forehead, on the spot where observers have told me that the third eye is located, and pray. Interestingly enough, I have unconsciously and instinctively, from the very beginning, adopted the practices used by initiates in meditation. This instinctive putting of my hands to the point midway between my two-eyes on my forehead is a case of what I mean. Then I wait for a few minutes, until I receive what might be called the "go signal" - a flash of brilliant white light, sometimes tending towards the golden in color. This light is to me the sign that I have made contact. When I do not see it, I know I cannot give the reading.

After seeing the light I move my two hands down to the solar plexus, and - they tell me - my breathing now becomes very deep and rhythmic, from the diaphragm. This goes on for several minutes. When my eyes begin to flutter closed (up till now they have been open, but glazed) the conductor knows I am ready to receive the suggestion, which he proceeds to give me, slowly and distinctly. If it is a physical reading, for example, the name of the individual to receive the reading is given me, together with the address where he will be located during that period of time. There is a pause - sometimes so long a pause (they tell me) that it seems I haven't heard the directions, so they give them to me again - after which I repeat the name and address very slowly, until the body is located, and a description of its condition is begun. This, then, is how I give a reading. I am entirely unconscious throughout the whole procedure. When I wake up I feel as if I had slept a little bit too long. And frequently I feel slightly hungry - just hungry enough for a cracker and a glass of milk, perhaps. As to the validity of the information that comes through me when I sleep - this, naturally is the question that occurs to everyone. Personally, I feel that its validity depends largely on how much faith or confidence the one seeking has in the source of information. Of course its validity has been objectively proved many hundreds of times by the results that have come from applying the advice.

With regard to the source of information, I have some ideas, naturally; but even though I have been doing this work for 31 years I know very little about it. Whatever I could say would be largely a matter of conjecture. I can make no claims whatsoever to great knowledge. I, to, am only groping.

But then, we all learn only by experience. We come to have faith or understanding by taking one step at a time. We don't all have the experience of getting religion all at once, ...like the man who got it halfway between the bottom of the well and the top when he was blown out by an explosion of dynamite. We all have to have our experiences and arrive at conclusions by weighing the evidence with something that responds from deep within our inner selves. As a matter of fact, there would seem to be not only one, but several sources of information that I tap when in this sleeping condition.

One source is, apparently, the record that an individual or entity make in all its experiences through what we call time. The sum-total of the experiences of that soul is "written," so to speak, in the subconscious of that individual as well as in what is known as the Akashic records. Anyone may read these records if he can attune himself properly. Apparently I am one of the few who can lay aside their own personalities sufficiently to allow their souls to make this attunement to this universal source of knowledge - but I say this without any desire to brag about it. In fact, I do not claim to possess anything that other individuals do not inherently possess. Really and truly, I do not believe there is a single individual that doesn't possess this same ability I have. I am certain that all human beings have much greater powers than they are ever conscious of - if they would only be willing to pay the price of detachment from self-interest that it takes to develop those abilities. Would you be willing, even once a year, to put aside, pass out entirely from, your own personality?

Some people think that the information coming through me is given by some departed personality who wants to communicate with them, or some benevolent spirit or physician from the other side. This may sometimes be the case though in general I am not a "medium" in that sense of the term. However, if a person comes seeking that kind of contact and information, I believe he receives it. Many people ask me how I prevent undesirable influences entering into the work I do. In order to answer that question let me relate an experience I had as a child. When I was between eleven and twelve years of age I had read the Bible through three times. I have read it fifty-six times. No doubt many people have read it more times than that, but I have tried to read it through once for each year of my life. Well, as a child I prayed that I might be able to do something for the other fellow, to aid other in understanding themselves, and especially to aid children in their ills. I had a vision one day which convinced me that my prayer had been heard and would be answered and as I go into the unconscious condition I do so with that faith. So I believe that if the source is not wavered by the desires of the individual seeking the reading, it will be from the universal. Of course if an individual's desire is very intense to have a communication from Grandpa, Uncle, or some great soul, the the contact is directed that way, and that becomes the source. Do not think that I am discrediting those who seek in that way. If you're willing to receive what Uncle Joe has to say, that's what you get; if you're willing to depend on a more universal source, that's what you get. "What ye ask ye shall receive" is a two-edged sword. It cuts both ways.

Edgar Cayce:February 6th, 1933